Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.

Three people have been arrested in Almonte, Huelva, for allegedly building on protected land close to the Doñana Nature Park.The buildings were to have been used for rural tourism, but the German owners of the land, the two German and Austrian promoters of the project in Alto de las Niñas, are now being held. A judicial order has taped up the site and the two buildings, built to host six beds in one and stables for 14 horses in another. A neighbouring villa and warehouse are also considered to have been built illegally.

Released Erden Vardar and Sahin Eren were detained on July 12th, 2006, in Huelva as they tried to smuggle 12 kilos of heroin into the country

National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon came under more fire from the press last week when it was revealed that two dangerous Turkish drug traffickers had been released from jail through an oversight on his part. The men walked free in July when their two-year provisional imprisonment ended and the judge failed to extend it. Erden Vardar and Sahin Eren were detained on July 12th, 2006, in Huelva as they tried to smuggle 12 kilos of heroin into the country. Their arrest led to the dismantling of one of the biggest heroin smuggling rings in which another Turk, one Croatian ten Spaniards were detained and 30 kilos of heroin were seized. Judge Garzon had just arrived back from a visit to Colombia where he had opened a seminar, just days before the two-year provisional sentence was due to end, and a few days later left Madrid again. He finally ordered the extension of the men;s provisional imprisonment a few days after it should have been done. As a result, their lawyer was able to get them out of jail. The judge said their release made no difference because they were still in the country and were due to appear in court again later this month

Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva

Man believed responsible for twelve armed robberies over the last two years that netted around a quarter of a million euros, was arrested in Huelva last Friday. The 67 year old recommenced his activities in April 2006 after escaping from Villabona jail in Asturias, where he was serving time for 11 similar offences. After a lengthy investigation, the suspect was tracked down to a car dealership on the La Paz industrial estate where he had just bought a car using a false identity. A search of the man's home in El Portil (Huelva) yielded a wealth of incriminating evidence including a 32 calibre Taurus handgun, various fake identity documents, a fake Local Police badge, and pepper spray.

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva

Isabel García, the wife of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of the killing of the five year old girl from Huelva, Mari Luz Cortés, suffered a nervous attack while declaring before Instruction Court 1 in Huelva about the case. The extent of her indisposition was such that the hearing had to be suspended.She arrived at Huelva Provincial Court at 4,45pm yesterday evening and was first subjected to a forensic investigation to determine her mental health. When she was then taken before the judge she suffered the attack and an ambulance had to be called, which finally took her shouting and crying to the hospital at the Sevilla – II jail. She has been held in the psychiatric wing of the prison since the start of April, where she is serving an outstanding 15 month prison sentence for failing to report the sexual abuse her husband carried out on their own five year old daughter.
When and how the case continues is now in the hands of the judge.

Santiago del Valle disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva

Santiago del Valle, a convicted paedophile arrested in March for the murder of five-year-old Mari Luz Cortés, has told a judge that he disposed of the infant girl's body in a sewer around 300 metres from his apartment in Huelva.
Mari Luz's body was found in an estuary outside the city 54 days after her disappearance on 13 January.In his court testimony from 27 March, which was made public this week, Del Valle admitted to enticing Mari Luz into the entrance hall to his apartment block with a toy after seeing her alone on the street. He claims she fell as she climbed the stairs and hit her head."I didn't touch her," Del Valle, who was previously convicted for abusing his own daughter and another young girl, told the judge. He said he "became scared," stuffed Mari Luz into a shopping handcart and walked around 300 metres to a sewer cap. He dropped her inside.
"I didn't know if she was alive or dead," he said.The autopsy revealed that Mari Luz died from asphyxia. Del Valle's testimony differs substantially from that of his sister, who is also a suspect in the girl's murder. Rosa del Valle said that on the day of Mari Luz's disappearance, she had driven her brother to a shopping mall near marshland on the outskirts of the city. She said he took the handcart with him - something she thought odd given that 13 January was a Sunday.

Drug arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline

Eleven people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling of 5,100 kilos of hashish.‘Operación Carabela’ began last December and was an investigation into an international network of drugs smugglers bringing hashish into Spain via the Guadalquivir river and then distributing it throughout Europe.
Sometimes the organisation used fishing boats, other time they used speed boats. The arrests came after two boats ran out of fuel and had to wait in the estuary for a third to bring fresh supplies of gasoline. The Guardia Civil began a chase which led to the arrest of seven of the gang members. Three others, including the head of the organisation were subsequently arrested in Los Barrios, Cádiz and another was detained in Punta Umbria, Huelva.Raids on several houses belonging to the detainees resulted in the seizure of drugs and weapons.

Santiago del Valle lured Mari Luz Cortés with a teddy bear

El País newspaper today prints what it says is the statement made by Santiago del Valle in court in Huelva. He’s the man who is accused of killing the Huelva five year old Mari Luz Cortés on January 13th. The newspaper says that his version of events is denied by the police and other statements, but he claims that he threw down a small teddy bear through a window at the door to his home, and called her. The five year old picked it up and entered into the hall of his building. ‘This is what happens to me with small girls’, he said. ‘I can’t help it’. He then called her upstairs and says she was scared and fell down the stairs knocking her head and ending up unconscious. Del Valle told the court that there was no blood and he panicked. He got a supermarket trolley and put her inside, covering her head with a black jacket.He said he only had to travel 300metres when he found a drain which he opened and placed the child inside. He claims he did not know whether she was alive or dead, but he heard a bang as he dropped her inside the drain. ‘I don’t understand how she appeared in the river’, he said ‘I did not put her there’.
He then says he told his wife, who did not believe him, and the couple left for Sevilla the next day after they were attacked by some local gypsies and feared more attacks. He said his sister Rosa was not involved.Meanwhile members of Santiago del Valle’s family have now left the district after a series of attacks against them and their property. ‘We’ve done nothing and have nothing to do with my brother’, complained one before they left.

Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration

Francisco del Valle, the brother of the man accused of murdering five year old Mari Luz Cortes, has become the target of local anger and frustration.On Monday night, a crowd of around 100 to 150 people went to his house in El Torrejon, Huelva, and began hurling stones and other objects. The police intervened before the mob could break down the door.Francisco del Valle is now asking the authorities for assistance in moving to a ’safe’ location, somewhere outside the province of Huelva. He is asking the Junta de Andalucía to provide himself and his three children, aged 3 years, 10 years and 17 years, with temporary accommodation until they can make other arrangements. Francisco says that the recent events are having a traumatic effect on his family.The local authorities have pleaded for calm, emphasing that Francisco del Valle has been fully cooperative with the police during the investigation and does not deserve the treatment he has been receiving.

Del Valle denounced the events of Monday night but no arrests have been made. Police have, however, been maintaining constant surveillance of the house to prevent any further incidents.Juan José Cortes, father of the murdered girl, has stated that he was unaware of the incident until the next day, adding that was obviously borne out of anger and resentment. He said that although he was able to control his own anger, there were those who obviously could not. He expressed a wish for a speedy resolution to the situation.

100 people in the El Torrejón district of Huelva have tried to lynch the brother of Santiago del Valle

100 people in the El Torrejón district of Huelva have tried to lynch the brother of Santiago del Valle, the man accused of killing the five year old local girl Mari Luz Cortés. The group tried to get into the brother’s home and threw stones at the building, shouting that he had helped to cover up the crime.Francisco del Valle has however told the press that he is prepared to testify against his brother Santiago, while his wife has said they can no longer live in the area and have to move as both she and their 17 year old daughter had come under threat. National and anti-riot Police had to intervene late on Monday night to stop the aggression from progressing. The Government Sub Delegate for Huelva, Manuel Bago, commented that the brother did not deserve what was happening.Mari Luz’s father was among the protestors and commented that it was Francisco who brought his brother to the district and that initially he defended him.It’s not the first time that the locals have attacked the brother of the suspect. An earlier attack at the end of last month was caught on television.Meanwhile the parents of Mari Luz Cortés have launched a campaign and petition calling for life imprisonment for those paedophiles who are committed of murder.

The justice system failed Mari Luz, Paedophile freedom in Spain

In 2007, the provincial court of Seville sentenced a man identified only as M. to 14 years in prison for repeatedly abusing his own daughter. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal on 8 November, but M. never set foot inside the penitentiary because he vanished from the village where he lived, although a few neighbours claim to have seen him. Santiago del Valle, who allegedly murdered a five-year-old girl named Mari Luz Cortés in Huelva last month, was not the only convicted paedophile who is walking around free. Ignacio Fernández de la Mata, a lawyer who represented the victim, is still waiting to be notified about M.'s imprisonment for sexually abusing his daughter for six years - from the time she turned eight. "Four days ago he was still a free man. I don't understand why, but that's the way it is," he said. "I wasn't at all surprised by the Mari Luz case. The system does not work, there is a shortage of courthouses and resources."Deputy prime minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega on Friday admitted that the justice system failed Mari Luz.
But M.'s situation, as well as that of another convicted paedophile in Lleida who went missing over a year ago, proves that the system is failing too often for comfort. Last Friday, Seville's courts stated that delays in implementing prison sentences are no exception, blaming the situation on insufficient resources.
There is something truly astonishing about Santiago del Valle's record. Each courthouse that he walked into worked like an isolated island, as if it had no connection with the rest of the legal system; a place where the repeat offender kept appearing as if it were the first time.
Is it really possible for a judge in Gijón to not know immediately whether a colleague in Tarragona has taken any measures against a paedophilia suspect? Can he not simply press a button and access a suspect's record? The answer is no.
"In 2008 we cannot allow a judge from Almería who is going to rule over the fate of a suspect to do so without knowing what another judge has ruled," says Antonio García Martínez, a judge at the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country and spokesman for the Professional Judges' Association. "We need a system that enables us to instantly know what is going on with specific people and cases."
Communications have developed faster than the courts. The only records that a judge can access immediately are those cases where there is a final verdict. That is why, when a second Seville judge convicted Del Valle in 2004 for sexual abuse, he did not treat him as a repeat offender. The 2002 sentence for abusing his own daughter was not included in the records because it had been appealed before the provincial court, which took three years to hand down its verdict.
A centralised database containing all legal sentences relating to a case would prevent offenders such as Santiago del Valle from staying out of prison. The matter raises other issues as well, such as the right to privacy. But it is one thing to create a database for judges, attorneys and law enforcement agencies, and another to create a public record of paedophilia offenders, as some people are demanding. The legal profession, in general, defends only the first possibility. "It would have to be a database with restricted access for people with a legitimate interest," says Jaime Tapia, a spokesman for the progressive judge association Jueces para la Democracia.

Marí Luz Cortés body taken in a supermarket trolley to the marshes before the family started to search for the child.

In a reconstruction of the day which five year old Marí Luz Cortés disappeared from Huelva, allegedly at the hands of Santiago del Valle, the main suspect, has concluded that he killed the child and, with the help of his sister Isabel García, got rid of the body within forty-five minutes to an hour. He hid the body in a supermarket trolley and took it to the marshes before the family started to search for the child. When the child’s father and others accused him and visited his home, just 100 m away, the deed was done and Santiago del Valle was cool and collected.
The El Mundo newspaper reports today that back in 1992 Santiago del Valle managed to be paid 20 million pesetas compensation after his first daughter, Nuria Noelia del Valle Garcia, was run over in strange circumstances when she was just two years old. The family had been living in a car at the time, and used the money to buy a flat in the Tres Mil Viviendas area of Sevilla where they had two other daughters.
The Mari Luz case has highlighted deficiencies in the Spanish judiciary system, with Santiago del Valle on the streets despite two firm prison sentences handed down against him, and the El Mundo newspaper today gives another example of its shortcomings.

Marí Luz Cortés errors made which resulted in the death of the five year old from Huelva

second judge is to be investigated regarding the errors made which resulted in the death of the five year old from Huelva, Marí Luz Cortés. The magistrate, Javier González, took nearly three years to confirm the sentence which condemned Santiago del Valle to prison for abusing his own five year old daughter.
Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power, the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has admitted that mistakes were made, and they have opened a full investigation. Spokesman, Enrique López, said also that the permanent commission of the CGJP had not detected any serious irregularities in the court which finally sentenced the main suspect in the Mari Luz case, and that therefore the system had to be improved and they would be putting forward a series of ideas.
The first judge named to be under investigation following the revelation that Santiago del Valle remained at large despite to firm prison sentences against him on earlier child abuse charges, was Judge Rafael Torres from Penal Court One in Sevilla. His court sentenced del Valle to prison for two years and nine months, but failed to enforce the prison order. He has been accused in the press of lying when he blamed civil servants for the errors. Both the judges now face some sort of disciplinary action, which could be announced as early as this Friday.
Meanwhile the acting Minister for Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, has said that he considers the case of Mari Luz to be ‘an anomaly’ in Spanish justice. He described it as ‘infrequent’ and where a chain of unfortunate errors had been made. He said it was fundamental that the law be met, and to cover things up with talk of life imprisonment was ‘hardly serious’.

Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, forced his way into Santiago del Valle’s home, on the same day that Mari Luz disappeared

El Mundo reports that several people from the neighbourhood, including Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, and some of her uncles, forced their way into Santiago del Valle’s home, taking some papers on the same day that the child had vanished, knocking down the door in search of the youngster. This led the man who is now charged with the child’s murder to call the police for help. The police went to the home and initially thought it was a simple case of breaking and entering, deciding to put off making full enquires until the next day. When they returned, Santiago del Valle and his family had gone, and it was only some time later that police joined the dots in the case and realised that they were dealing with a known paedophile with a previous record.


Santiago del Valle García, the man arrested in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortés from Huelva, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in Instruction Court One in Huelva on charges of murder and against sexual freedom. The judge also told him that he must also serve the two years and nine month sentence handed down against him in 2006 by Penal Court One in Sevilla for abusing his own daughter.The judge also ordered prison without bail for Rosa del Valle, his sister who had also been arrested along with his wife and a brother. The wife, Isabel García, was released with charges after making her statement to the Instruction judge and is now reported to be staying outside Huelva province. Santiago and Rosa left the Huelva Provincial Court at a quarter to one this morning, bound for the jail in Huelva.Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power (CGPJ), the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has opened an investigation as to why the alleged killer of Mari Luz had not served a single day in jail, despite two prison sentences against him. The latest was the firm 2 year 9 month sentence handed down against him by Penal Court One in Sevilla for the sexual abuse of his own five year old daughter. There was a second earlier sentence also, for two years in jail, handed down for the sexual abuse of a nine year old girl who he surprised on the stairs of her home, which he also somehow escaped serving.
It appears the official reason was that he was ‘whereabouts unknown' and had also appealed against the second sentence which had allowed him to avoid being placed inside. He had claimed that it was a gymnastics teacher who had abused his daughter, and not him, presenting a fake medical report at the time to support his case.

The court documents from Sevilla at the time make dramatic reading. Público quotes them as saying ‘On several occasions the accused, dropping his trousers, would make his daughter touch his member with her hands, and on other occasions he would masturbate while he touched her genital region. The mother was often present while this took place, and despite the opposition of the child who complained to her father that it hurt, never did anything to stop it taking place’. The court documents note that the mother, Isabel García, has an I.Q. of only 47, and she was clearly under the manipulative influence of her husband. The Sevilla court documents also indicate that Santiago del Valle suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but also that the judge considered that when he abused his daughter he knew exactly what he was doing. The couple’s two daughters, now aged 9 and 15, are in the care of foster families. There is also a third case of a 13 year old girl in Gijón, against whom he was handed down a distancing order after he had been chatting to her on the internet and proposed sexual relations. The girl’s mother discovered the plan and informed the police in that case.The Government Delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, commented that it was not for the police or the government to comment on the situation, and he was not going to make a judgement. He called for calm from the local population. However López Garzón did not deny that there was a search and capture order in place against Santiago del Valle since 2006. It appears that the Police investigators into the Mari Luz case knew nothing of this however, and were unaware that he lived less than 100 metres away from where she disappeared. However the local residents of this tight-knit community did know about Santiago del Valle’s past, and a few hours after Mari Luz vanished they had informed the missing girl’s parents.

Santiago del Valle García, imprisoned without bail by the judge in the Court of First Instance in Huelva charged with murder of Mari Luz

Santiago del Valle García, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in the Court of First Instance in Huelva on charges of murder of Mari Luz and and against sexual freedom.. The judge told him that he must also serve the two years and nine month sentence handed down against him in 2006 by the Court of First Instance in Sevilla for abusing his own daughter.The judge also ordered prison without bail for Rosa del Valle, his sister who had also been arrested along with his wife and a brother. The wife, Isabel García, was released with charges after making her statement to the Instruction judge and is now reported to be staying outside the Huelva province. Santiago and Rosa left the Huelva Court at a quarter to one this morning, bound for the jail in Huelva.Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power (CGPJ), the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has opened an investigation as to why the alleged killer of Mari Luz had not served a single day in jail, despite two prison sentences against him. The latest was the 2 year 9 month sentence handed down against him by the Court of First Instance in Sevilla for the sexual abuse of his own five year old daughter. There was a second earlier sentence also, for two years in jail, handed down for the sexual abuse of a nine year old girl who he surprised on the stairs of her home, which he also somehow escaped serving.It appears the official reason was that his ‘whereabouts were unknown' and had also appealed against the second sentence which had allowed him to avoid being placed inside. He had claimed that it was a gymnastics teacher who had abused his daughter, and not him, presenting a fake medical report at the time to support his case.The court documents from Sevilla at the time make dramatic reading. Público quotes them as saying ‘On several occasions the accused, dropping his trousers, would make his daughter touch his member with her hands, and on other occasions he would masturbate while he touched her genital region. The mother was often present while this took place, and despite the opposition of the child who complained to her father that it hurt, never did anything to stop it taking place’. The court documents note that the mother, Isabel García, has an I.Q. of only 47, and she was clearly under the manipulative influence of her husband. The Sevilla court documents also indicate that Santiago del Valle suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but also that the judge considered that when he abused his daughter he knew exactly what he was doing. The couple’s son and daughter, now aged 9 and 15, are in the care of foster families.
There is also a third case of a 13 year old girl in Gijón, against whom he was handed down a distancing order after he had been chatting to her on the internet and proposed sexual relations. The girl’s mother discovered the plan and informed the police in that case.
The Government Delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, commented that it was not for the police or the government to comment on the situation, and he was not going to make a judgement. He called for calm from the local population. However López Garzón did not deny that there was a search and capture order in place against Santiago del Valle since 2006.
It appears that the Police investigators into the Mari Luz case knew nothing of this however, and were unaware that he lived less than 100 metres away from where she disappeared. However the local residents of this tight-knit community did know about Santiago del Valle’s past, and a few hours after Mari Luz vanished they had informed the missing girl’s parents.
El Mundo reports that several people from the neighbourhood, including Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, and some of her uncles, forced their way into Santiago del Valle’s home, taking some papers on the same day that the child had vanished, knocking down the door in search of the youngster. This led the man who is now charged with the child’s murder to call the police for help. The police went to the home and initially thought it was a simple case of breaking and entering, deciding to put off making full enquires until the next day. When they returned, Santiago del Valle and his family had gone, and it was only some time later that police joined the dots in the case and realised that they were dealing with a known paedophile with a previous record.

According to the site of the Spanish newspaper ABC, Santiago del Valle, confessed to the police that he "touched" Mari Luz on the day of her death. There are no official confirmations on the details of the confession, however, judicial sources advance that the suspect confessed to be obsessed with the girl. Mari Luz was lured to the house of Santiago with a toy and then he touched the 5 year old girl in the buttocks.
Rosa del Valle was living with the brother Santiago and his wife, Isabel, in the district El Torrejón up to the date of the disappearance of Mari Luz (13th of January). Rosa is detained by suspicion of having transported the body of the girl in her blue Hyunday. Compromising evidences were found in a wet cardboard that was in the luggage of her car. The neighbourhood in Huelva thinks that she was ‘weird’. They say, for example, that she had the routine of washing her car in the night. After his arrest on Tuesday, Santiago del Valle said he had invited the child into his house and attempted to abuse her, but she struggled and accidentally fell down the stairs and was killed. He also admitted that he had put his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. The post mortem showed that she had died of asphyxiation. Frightened and with fear of being incriminated, he launched Mari Luz body to the river Huelva.It was reported that del Valle had a pending prison term of more than two and a half years for the sexual abuse of his young daughter, who was the same age as Mari Luz when the abuse took place. He was originally sentenced in 2002, and the sentence was confirmed by a higher court at the end of 2005.It’s understood that his wife, who was released with charges in the Mari Luz investigation, was also sentenced in that previous case, and that the couple tried to blame a gym teacher for the abuse suffered by their daughter.
There was no warrant out for his arrest in connection with the sentence, Europa Press reports, but a Seville court had issued an order in March 2006 to locate his whereabouts after ruling that he should serve the term. Juan José López Garzón, central government delegate for Andalucía, told the news agency that del Valle has been under watch by police since the beginning of the investigation into Mari Luz’s disappearance. National Police have also confirmed that they received no warrant for his arrest, and noted that there was insufficient evidence to charge him when he was originally questioned in the investigation.Del Valle was sentenced by another court in Seville for abusing a nine year old girl, and received a two year suspended sentence in that case.

Spanish police fired rubber bullets and clashed with protesters gathered outside a court Thursday in the town of Huelva for the arrival of two suspect

Spanish police fired rubber bullets and clashed with protesters gathered outside a court Thursday in the town of Huelva for the arrival of two suspects in the disappearance and death of a 5-year-old local girl.
The crowds shouted «murderer» and hurled bottles and stones as the suspects _ a man and his sister _ arrived in a police van. Three police officers and two journalists were slightly injured. Two people were arrested.
«I insist in asking people to stay calm and to let the courts do their work,» Juan Jose Lopez Garzon, Interior Ministry delegate for the southern region of Andalucia, told reporters.
The detained man and his sister were arrested Tuesday in the central city of Cuenca.
Mari Luz Cortes vanished Jan. 13 when she left her home in the southern town of Huelva to buy sweets. After weeks of searches, police found her remains March 7 in an estuary near the city.The case was major news in Spain given that the child had disappeared in an area about two hours' drive from the Portuguese town where British girl Madeleine McCann went missing in May of last year while on vacation with her parents.
Lopez Garzon said the detained man is the main suspect. He had been a neighbor of the dead girl, Mari Luz Cortes, but had left Huelva shortly after her disappearance. He was arrested weeks later but released for lack of evidence.
The General Council of the Judiciary, an oversight board, said Thursday it had ordered an inquiry into why the suspect had been free despite having been sentenced twice in recent years for child abuse. Santiago del Valle García, the man being held in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortes was arrested in Cuenca, along with his wife and his two brothers, although del Valle is the only one to remain in custody.In his original statement, Santiago del Valle García apparently confessed to killing the young girl but later amended his statement to say that although he taped the girl’s mouth and was present when she died, her death was accidental. This latest version claims that Mari Luz had willingly accompanied him and died as a result of falling down some stairs. He admits putting tape over her mouth and then removing the body using a shopping trolley.Meanwhile, the McCann family are keen to question Santiago del Valle García in relation to the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine last May 3rd.

The main suspect is named in reports as Santiago del Valle, who was a neighbour of the Cortés family until recently

Mari Luz´s father, Juan José Cortés, gave a press conference on Wednesday thanking officers for their work in the investigation into his daughter’s death, and commented that he would not wish the pain he suffered in the 54 days she was missing on anyone else, not even on ‘my daughter’s murderer.’
arrests took place in Pajaroncillo, Cuenca, where del Valle and his wife recently moved to avoid reprisals, according to reports. Del Valle has a previous criminal record for sexually abusing one of his daughters, EFE says, and was suspected by Mari Luz’s family from the very first moment. He was in fact arrested in Granada in the early stages of the investigation but released for lack of evidence.


The Civil Guard now have four suspects for the death of Mari Luz Cortés, the five year old from Huelva who disappeared from her home in the El Torrejón district of the city on 13th January on a short trip to the local sweets kiosk, and was found dead 54 days later. The main suspect is named in reports as Santiago del Valle, who was a neighbour of the Cortés family until recently, and lived on the route she would have taken to the kiosk. He was arrested along with his wife on Tuesday. It’s understood the wife has now been released with charges, and she and del Valle’s brother and sister are said to be charged with covering up the crime.He is reported to have confessed to police to his involvement in the child’s disappearance, and said she fell and died accidentally when she was with him ‘at her own choice.’ El Mundo gives a few more details on his confession, that he claims she died when she hit her head after falling down the stairs at the entrance to his block, and that he panicked and hid her in a shopping trolley. He is also said to have admitted that he covered her mouth at one stage.His arrest is said to have come thanks to evidence from the autopsy results on Mari Luz’s body, after she was found floating in the Ría de Huelva on 7th March. There has been no confirmation of what that evidence is, but EFE said the results showed there were no signs of sexual assault, and that asphyxia was the cause of death. She had suffered a broken rib, which could have been the result of a struggle or an attempt to keep her quiet.The suspects are expected to appear before the investigating judge in Huelva on Thursday.

The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this

The parents of Mari Luz suspected this man from the first moment. Juan José Cortés, said this morning: “We know that it is him, we are sure, and this is no surprise to me”One of the suspects of the death of Mari Luz confessed today to the Spanish police that the girl died in an accident, falling down the stairs. Santiago del Valle García also said that the girl went with him to his house willingly. The man is one of three neighbours of the Cortés family detained yesterday in the afternoon by the Spanish police and he had already a previous record as a paedophile.His wife, Isabel García, has also been arrested, although initially there is no suspicion that she has intervened in the actions, but only to interrogate her. This man was the number one suspect of the homicide since the first moment, mainly because the little girl was last seen alive while walking in front of his house, in the same neighbourhood, El Torrejon, where she resided with her family. Mari Luz disappeared on January 13, when she went to buy sweets at a kiosk. The sister of the suspect was freed meantime. The couple keeps on being questioned.
The principal suspect of the death of Mari Luz lived a few meters away from the Cortés family. The man went away from the district the following day after the disappearance of the child, with fear of retaliations. The Police, later on, found and questioned Santiago in Granada. He was detained some days later after the arrest, but was released at that time since there was no sufficient proof to indict him.
The police arrested him again yesterday in Pajaroncillo, a village of 100 inhabitants in the hills of Cuenca, hundreds of kilometres away of Huelva, together with his wife, Isabel, and sister. This arrest was done as a result of new evidence arising from the autopsy carried out on Mari Luz Cortés. He had travelled there, to receive his monthly pension, according to police sources. After his initial statement, during which he confessed to the crime, he now assures that the child "fell" and accidentally died. Frightened and with fear of being incriminated, he launched Mari Luz body to the river Huelva.
The 52-year-old man, Santiago del Valle García, had already been arrested for paedophilia and sexual abuses, including to one of his daughters, which was the motive why a judge had issued an order to keep the child at a distance from her father, to prevent him from harassing her again, according to police sources. The Spanish authorities suspect that the cause of the crime has a sexual nature. In 2002, Santiago was convicted by a court in Sevilla of continued sexual abuse against his own daughter, he tried to accuse the gymnastics teacher of abusing his 5 year old daughter and claimed compensations of 60.100 euros.He was condemned to 2 years and 9 months of imprisonment. In a later audience in the year of 2006, a judge considered that Santiago suffered 75% of paranoid schizophrenia and that his wife, Isabel suffered 65%. They children, a girl who has now 15 and a 9 year old boy, were taken from their custody and were sent to a 'foster' care family.

Santiago del Valle García convicted for child abuse and indecent assault on minors, and is already said to have confessed to Mari Luz's murder.

Santiago del Valle García, 52, has confessed to the murder of Mari Luz Cortés, according to news sources. He had already been questioned in Granada but was released for lack of proof. Santiago G. and his wife and sister, who had been neighbours of the Cortés family in Huelva, were detained in Cuenca, to where they had moved well before the body of little Mari Luz was found downriver from the family home.Del Valle had always been the prime suspect in the case but police lacked evidence against him. According to police sources quoted in the newspaper, he had a history of child molestation, even on his own daughter, and had left the El Torrejón district of Huelva to avoid possible reprisals from indignant neighbours. His wife, whose name does not appear, was detained for questioning with her husband although she is not a suspect; his sister could be accused of collaboration in the execution of a crime.
Mari Luz disappeared on her way back home from buying a packet of crisps on January 13th and was the subject of a wide search throughout the country, with European extensions. Her body was found accidentally on March 7th by workmen at the Cepsa refinery in Huelva. Autopsy reports indicated that she had been murdered very near, or on the date she disappeared.The man being quizzed by Spanish police is reported to have convictions for child abuse and indecent assault on minors, and is already said to have confessed to Mari Luz's murder. man has been arrested in Huelva in connection with the disappearance and death of the five year old Mari Luz Cortés, whose body was found floating in the Ria de Huelva last March 7. She had vanished when going to buy some crisps on the previous January 13 in the Torrejón district of Huelva.The Government Sub-delegation offices in Huelva have confirmed that an arrest was made yesterday, and that this person is now in police custody answering questions.The identity of the arrested man has not been given, and a reminder was given that reporting restrictions are in force in the case.Mari Luz's body was found floating in an estuary in Huelva near the Portuguese border on March 7 shortly after the posters went up around Spain.

Mari Luz Cortes Questions remain where Santiago del Valle Garcia was on the day Madeleine disappeared from her Algarve holiday flat.

The questions remain where was 52-year-old Spaniard Santiago del Valle Garcia was on the day Madeleine disappeared from her Algarve holiday flat. Garcia was detained yesterday in Portugal, on suspicion of killing five-year-old Mari Luz Cortes.
Four people have been indicted in connection with the death of 5-year-old girl Mari Luz Cortes, whose disappearance shocked Spain, police said Wednesday. The main suspect was a man with a criminal record for sexual abuse of children, who lived near the family of Mari Luz in the southern city of Huelva. Those indicted included the man and his wife, who were detained near Cuenca in central Spain, as well as the man's brother and sister. The wife was released with charges. The man was believed to have taken Mari Luz to the couple's home, where she fell down the stairs and died accidentally, after which the other suspects helped the man get rid of the body, according to television reports. The girl's body was found floating in a river on March 7 after two months of searches. An autopsy showed that she had not been sexually abused.The man, a known paedophile named as Santiago del Valle Garcia, lived locally in the Torrejón area and had been a suspect of the family from the start
A man, who was arrested in Spain yesterday is reported to have confessed to his involvement in the death of Mari Luz Cortés, the five year old girl who vanished in Huelva on January 13. The man, named by the victim’s father Juan José, as Santiago del Valle Garcia , lived locally in the same Torrejón district of the city, but has recently moved to Cuenca with his wife to avoid reprisals.The suspect, who has a previous criminal record for child sexual abuse, was arrested with his wife in Pajaroncillo, a village in Cuenca province. Canal Sur reports that his sister has also been detained by the police.Known as the Spanish Madeleine in the British press, she vanished when going to buy some crisps on the previous January 13 in the Torrejón district of Huelva. Her body finally appeared floating in the Ria de Huelva on March 7.
Reporting restrictions remain in force in the case, but the child’s father, Juan José Cortés, told the Huelva Infomación newspaper that the man is called Santiago, lived locally and has a criminal record for child and sexual abuse. He said that the family had suspected him from the very first moment in the case.
‘We know that it is him, we are sure, and this is no surprise to me’, said the father this morning.Europa Press reports that the arrested man has now confessed, to the police but not to a judge, to his involvement in the disappearance of the five year old, but says that she died accidentally. According to his statement to police, he said that she fell and died accidentally when she was with him ‘at her own choice’. The paper reports that this man had been arrested earlier in Granada just a few days after Mari Luz vanished, and was released on a lack of any evidence.
Police say that they are sure that the man is responsible for the death of the child, and they believe that the motive was sexual. He is also reported to have a distancing order in place against his own children. The analysis from the police forensic department indicates however that the man could not manage to sexually force himself on the child.Spanish news also reports that a couple has been arrested in connection with the death of 5-year-old girl Mari Luz Cortes, whose disappearance shocked southern Spain, police said Wednesday. The detainees lived in the same neighbourhood in the city of Huelva as Mari Luz's family. The circumstances of the death of Mari Luz, whose body was found floating in a river on March 7 after two months of searches, have been unclear. The case of Mari Luz has been compared with that of 4-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann, who went missing on May 3, 2007, in a southern Portuguese holiday resort not far from where Mari Luz disappeared. The fate of Madeleine, who made headlines all over the world, has not been clarified

Mariluz Cortes police to believe she was grabbed from behind

Police believe five-year-old was suffocated before being thrown into river
The autopsy on the body of Mariluz Cortes shows the five-year-old died only hours after she went missing on January 13.Police recovered her badly decomposed body from a river estuary in Huelva on March 8 – almost two months after she disappeared while buying sweets near her home.Tests revealed Mariluz had suffered a broken rib before her death, leading police to believe she was grabbed from behind.
Marks on her face show her mouth and nose were covered until she suffocated to death.Police have ruled out the possibility that the five-year-old died as a result of accidentally falling into either of the two rivers that run through the city.
Officers are now searching the banks of the Odiel and Tinto rivers to discover the location she was thrown in to the water.Her body was found fully-clothed and tests revealed no sexual assault had taken place.The girl’s parents - Juan Jose Cortes, 34, a former professional footballer, and Irene Suarez – had maintained from the first day of her disappearance that she had been abducted.The case has drawn parallels with that of missing British toddler, who disappeared in May last year. Huelva is a short drive from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz from where Madelaine McCann disappeared in May last year while her parents were dining with friends.