An English national was warned on 28 May that people were in his home. His plane landed on Tuesday and he was admitted to hospital hours later. According to his statement, he was hit on the head with a bottle and cut with glass.
A distressing case of squatting in the municipality of Manilva. An English national, who caught a flight from his home country after neighbours told him that some individuals had moved into his holiday home, had to be hospitalised after being beaten when he demanded that the squatters leave the property. According to his account, he was struck several times on the head with bottles and suffered numerous cuts to his back and other parts of his body, allegedly caused by broken glass. When Local Police and Guardia Civil officers arrived, they «told him to file a complaint» after he had received medical attention.
The assault took place last Tuesday, although it all began days earlier. On Sunday 28 May, residents of a housing complex with approximately 700 homes, whose name they have asked not to be given in order to avoid encouraging others, realised that someone was living in Michael’s house and had even installed an alarm. «They called him and asked if he had rented out his flat. He said no, so they explained that people were living in it, and he said he would catch a plane and come to see what was going on,» a spokeswoman for the residents’ association told El Confidencial.
The 52-year-old man travelled from England to Málaga on Tuesday morning and went straight on to Manilva, a town about 100 kilometres from the provincial capital. When he arrived at the complex, some residents advised him to call the security forces, but he refused. «Then we told him we would go with him, but he replied that we shouldn’t worry, that he would go alone.»
What happened inside the property will have to be determined by the courts, but the result was the sight of Mike, as he is also known, covered in blood and asking for help. «A number of people beat him up. They attacked him with a bottle and cut him with the glass» on different parts of his body, said the neighbours, relaying what he had told them. They added that «on his back, for example, he had a ten-centimetre wound». «A little more and they would have killed him.»
«One of them breaks a bottle and used it to strike him several times on the body and head while he struggled,» states the complaint.
The injury report issued by the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella, to which this newspaper has had access, states that the injured man had two fractures in a finger, «cuts to the left renal fossa, dorsal area and left flank», as well as another to the «cartilage of the left outer ear and mastoid». In the complaint he filed with the Guardia Civil on Thursday, the victim stated that when he reached the door of his home he tried to open it with his key. On finding that the lock had been changed, he rang the bell several times but nobody answered. «Because it might be a case of alleged squatting, the complainant noticed that one of the windows of his home was open, so he decided to climb inside, thinking that nobody was there.»
Michael got onto the balcony of the neighbouring apartment, «noticing that his furniture was there», and from there went into his own. Once in his flat, he realised there were people in the living room. According to the document, he asked them what they were doing there, «to which the occupants of the property responded violently, starting an assault». «One of them breaks a glass bottle and used it to strike the complainant several times on the body and head while he struggled.» The injured man said the attackers «were three men, allegedly of Moroccan nationality» and, when questioned by the Guardia Civil officers, stated that he could identify the one who attacked him with the bottle. The victim added that he only defended himself by pushing and that at no point did he use any object or weapon.
Residents of the development said that, a little over a month ago, the property next to the English national’s was squatted, a home belonging to a person who has not been possible to contact. «We think they jumped across the balcony into Michael’s home, but what shocked us most was that they had even installed an alarm. We called the security company to explain that the property had been squatted and they told us not to worry because it was not operational. If they have come to install it, why wouldn’t they connect it?»
«They won’t do anything»
After the assault, the owner «went to the access control booth at the entrance to the complex to ask for help». The health services, the Local Police and the Guardia Civil were called. An ambulance and officers from both forces went to the scene. «They went to the property and apparently spoke to the squatters, who told them they had a rental contract.» This, «obviously, was false», the residents remarked, and they did not hide their annoyance that the officers took no action. «There was a man there dripping with blood and they only identified them!» they exclaimed indignantly.
«They told him to go and file a complaint once he had been seen by the doctors,» the residents say. Michael was taken to the hospital in Marbella, where he remained until being discharged on Wednesday afternoon. He then found a hotel in the town and is trying to get legal advice on how to recover a property to which he was due to move in the coming weeks to spend the holidays with his family.
The victim, who returned to England on Friday, admits he does not know whether he will come back to the municipality because he fears for his family
Mike is «in low spirits». «He feels a mixture of regret and fright. He regrets it because he acted without thinking and thinks he has put his family in danger.» «He is afraid of bumping into the squatters in the street and of them attacking his family,» said a person who has been with him these past few days, adding that «he confirmed to his loved ones that the house was squatted, but did not tell them he had been beaten».
The man preferred to tell them in person so as not to worry them, and this Friday he took a flight back to England. He said he wanted to «get some fresh air» and think things over, because the officers warned him that he could be reported by the squatters for entering his own home. As he left the barracks after filing the complaint, he confessed: «I know what’s going to happen, they won’t do anything.» He then said: «I don’t know if I will come back to Manilva.»
Sources from the residents’ association said this is the third home to be squatted and did not hide their concern that the people who have broken into them «even have remote controls for the garages». This leads affected neighbours to think that an organised group dedicated to this criminal activity may be behind these events.
The squatters, they say, disrupt community life because «they are noisy» and bother the other residents. They also explained that the officers who attended the assault found a strange package on adjoining land that was allegedly thrown from the squatted house.
Anti-squatting firms offer their services free of charge
Two anti-squatting companies, Antiokupasgroup, which operates in the area, and Desokupa, run by Daniel Esteve and the largest such firm nationwide, have offered to resolve Mike’s problem free of charge and quickly, given the legal loopholes that could delay the legal eviction from the property by months or even years.
