It’s a story that reads like a script for an exotic, violent, if slightly over-the-top crime drama. The contents include a former rock star; an unsolved murder in which the victim is found at the bottom of a well; an alleged wrongful imprisonment; and an innocent man’s thirty-year fight for justice.
But it was guitarist Gary Owens, from Bramhall, Stockport, who had tasted fame with his band. His ordeal began in the Canary Islands when armed police surrounded his partner Jayne’s Renault car. He was arrested twice and held on remand in custody on suspicion of involvement in the death of a wealthy Norwegian club owner on the Costa del Sol, in 1991 and 2008.
He says he spent some time in a locked ‘medieval’ prison with heroin addicts in Marbella and later managed to escape. He spent almost three years in prison in total but was never charged with any crime.
The MEN reported in 2017 that he was told there was no case against him. Now, after an unfortunate and torturous legal process in numerous Spanish courts, his lawyer will present a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg next month seeking £4.6m in damages from the Spanish government.
The guitarist’s band – A II Z – broke into the UK heavy metal charts in 1980 and played with supergroups such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. It was his quest for fame that eventually led to his life turning into a nightmare as he started playing in pubs, schools and clubs in Stockport and secured a two-album deal with Polydor.
By the time Gary was living in Spain in 1991, the short-lived revival of heavy rock in the UK had died down. But a later impressive career playing in a band called Tytan and then working as an assistant tour manager for Manchester-based Kennedy Street Enterprises had kept him connected to the music industry and hoping to record a solo album; an ambition that brought him into contact with a man who was legitimately going to be killed.
‘A man hit our window with a gun’
The ordeal began when a Spanish police officer banged on the window of Gary and his partner Jayne’s rented Renault car in Tenerife on April 2, 1991. Fifteen police officers allegedly surrounded his vehicle outside an apartment building in Tenerife and as he was opening the window, he claims a shotgun spear hit the window inches from his face.
Gary said: “We had just got into our car and there was a knock on the window, it was a man with a shotgun. There were others there, all armed, we had a short (court) hearing, the consulate was there. Then we got on a plane back to Malaga at very high speed and went to the airport.
“When we got there they took everyone off the plane and then we were escorted down the stairs,” he claims. “There was a line of Guardia Civil at the tail of the plane, all armed with machine guns. It was arranged like that so they could take photographs for the newspaper.”
He was arrested on suspicion of murdering Norwegian businessman Torbjorn Heta, 33, who owned a nightclub and recording studio in Marbella, whose body was found in a well.
“I’ve seen the photos. At a court hearing the judge asked me my shoe size, I said six, he said loudly ‘not that’ and they sent me outside to sit on a chair,” he said. “They had forensic evidence that the person who killed the man was wearing a size eight or nine because he left bloody footprints at the scene.
“I was writing songs, that’s how I knew the dead guy. He had a 24-track recording studio in the basement. I was doing little gigs and hoping to record a solo album. But I didn’t need to make money at the time.”
Despite all this, Gary spent 30 months in maximum security prisons before being released on bail without charge in October 1993. The MEN were there to witness his release. Twelve people, including Gary, were arrested in connection with the murder – but it remains unsolved.
Gary, now 62, a former Bramhall High School pupil, returned to the UK in October 1995 after being warned to leave Spain by the British Embassy in Madrid. However, in 2008, while living with Jayne in Poynton, he was issued with a European Arrest Warrant.
He fought extradition proceedings through the High Court and the Supreme Court, but lost and was sent back to Spain in November 2009. Gary says he was ‘railroaded’, being moved from prison to prison around the country for several weeks before being released on £5,000 bail in February 2010.
He spent the next six years on bail before being told no action would be taken against him. It took until December 2016 to get back his £5,000 bail money. He has called for a public inquiry into why he was wrongfully imprisoned and intends to sue the British and Spanish authorities.
He claims others tried to set him up for the murder and believes it was linked to a drugs deal gone wrong. He says he was given the name ‘Charles Axon’ for his own safety while in custody in Spain.
Gary said: “I met the man who was killed because he had a state-of-the-art 24-track recording studio in the basement of his villa. He was offered the chance to record a solo album there.”
But Gary claims that about a month before his first arrest, he was warned at gunpoint by three men he believed were the killers to leave the small town of Sitio de Calahonda, near Marbella, after Mr Heta was killed.
He believes British drug gangs were involved in the murder. Gary wrote to former prime minister David Cameron and then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well as Foreign Office officials, demanding an investigation.
‘I’ve been accused for 25 years’
He said: “I have been accused of a crime for 25 years with no evidence. I was never charged and was wrongfully imprisoned. My music career has been ruined and my businesses and family have suffered.
“We want a national investigation in the UK and Spain. I have been treated unfairly by the Spanish and British justice systems. We are demanding compensation from the Spanish system for the wrongful detention and human rights violations.”
Speaking about his first incarceration in the 90s, he added: “I was sent to the prison in Malaga simply because I escaped from the first prison they put me in, Marbella. They put me with a bunch of gypsies who were dealing drugs. I don’t do drugs and I’m a straight man. They were stealing my clothes and threatening me with knives. I complained to the British Consul who came down but nothing changed.
“So I paid a gypsy woman to bring me a hacksaw and I cut through the bars of my cell, got out and went to a hotel down the road. I stayed there with my feet up for about seven days. Then there was a knock on the door and two men came out with their guns out – but they were pointing them at the ground. Then I was sent to Malaga prison.
“When I arrived at the old Malaga prison, the director was told to handcuff me to a bed in a cell inside another cell. I stayed there for seven days until the prison director saw me and said they would release me.”
But Gary says he spent 30 months in custody before being released due to delays in processing his ‘paperwork’, only to be extradited and re-arrested 13 years later.
Gary said: “The aim of taking the case to the Court of Human Rights is to change the law in Spain so that this never happens to anyone again. We are also suing the Spanish government. I have two lawyers at the moment, one of whom is a law professor in Spain.”
Victor Soriano i Piqueras, one of two lawyers representing Gary, said: “Mr Owens filed a compensation claim with the Spanish Ministry of Justice, but the case was rejected. We have therefore appealed the Ministry’s decision in the Spanish courts. The competent court is the Audiencia Nacional.
“When the Audiencia Nacional rejected the objection, we appealed to the Supreme Court, which was also rejected. Finally, we appealed to the Constitutional Court for amparo, which was also rejected. The Spanish courts are refusing to pay compensation to Mr Owens on the grounds that there were formal errors in the compensation application submitted to the Ministry.
“The next step is to file a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Spain at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. We are currently preparing the application and its French translation and aim to register it with the Court by 31 October at the latest.
“We will be requesting before the ECtHR that Spain be convicted of violating Mr Owens’ rights and that the amount initially claimed, interest and litigation costs be reimbursed. We have believed since the beginning of this procedure that it would only be possible to win this case before the ECtHR.”
Gary, who now lives in Scunthorpe with Jayne, followed his dream after being impressed by Michael Schenker’s UFO band playing at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on 17 June 1978. He said: “After that gig I was 100% committed to being a rock guitarist and was rehearsing on my own for four to six hours a day.”
In November of that year, he met AC/DC backstage at the Manchester Apollo and asked them for advice on how to break into the industry. Within two years, his band was on the UK heavy metal charts. The seeds of an innocent but fateful meeting with Mr Heta a decade later were planted.
Spain’s Justice Ministry did not respond when asked to respond to Mr Owens’ appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, but a spokesman previously told MEN: “I am afraid we cannot assist you with your request. You should try contacting the Spanish court that is trying the case.”
Asked by the MEN to respond to what happened to Mr Owens, a spokesman for the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said this week: “We provided consular support to a Briton in Spain.”
Founded by Gary and named after the street atlas, A II Z achieved success after forming in 1979 and rode the new wave of British heavy metal before disbanding in 1982.
Manchester Evening News has contacted Spain’s Ministry of Justice for further comment.