Boys held over holiday isle murder of company boss 'admitted attack'

Simon Bristow

TWO teenage boys being held over the fatal stabbing of a Yorkshire businessman in Tenerife are reported to have admitted the killing.

Company director Peter Cockshutt, 71, was found dead on Monday at his holiday home in the resort of Costa del Silencio.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He had been stabbed three times in what may have been a bungled robbery.

Mr Cockshutt was found on the settee, with a blood-soaked towel. It is thought he managed to fetch it from the bathroom to stem the bleeding but his family say he was on drugs to thin his blood because of a medical condition and would not have been able to halt it.

According to reports on the island, a boy aged 14 from Chile was arrested at a secondary school at lunchtime on Tuesday, and he implicated a 16-year-old youth from Uruguay, who was arrested that night.

Both were said to have confessed to the killing yesterday – the 16-year-old having held Mr Cockshutt while the younger boy stabbed him.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Cockshutt’s daughter is believed to be liaising with Spanish police and is expected to be joined by his wife Patricia and two sons shortly.

Mrs Cockshutt, 70, only flew back to the UK on Saturday to oversee repairs to their other home in Brandesburton, East Yorkshire.

Son Tony Cockshutt, 47, believes his father would have tried to fight off his attackers.

He added: “The people who did this have not just ruined one life, they have ruined a whole family’s lives.”

Police are still searching for the knife used in the attack.

Related topics: