Craig Mallon: Dad’s heartbreak as wife dies with no closure over son’s unsolved killing

Antoinette Mallon died three months ago following a short illness at the age of just 48, not knowing who killed her son Craig.

Craig, 26, had travelled to Lloret de Mar for his brother Brian’s stag weekend in May 2012.

Within just a few hours of arriving, the quantity surveyor died after one blow to the head.

BBC Scotland is now set to screen a documentary in which retired detective David Swindle - the brains behind Operation Anagram, which helped catch Scottish serial killer Peter Tobin - investigates the deaths of Craig, and West Lothian woman Kirsty Maxwell, to question why Spanish police have still not been able to identify Craig’s killer.

Craig with mum Antoinette in 2008

Speaking to the Evening Times, dad Ian described the toll his son and wife’s deaths have had on his life.

He also remembered his last moments with his son as he desperately continues to search for answers on his death.

The 54-year-old said: “Craig had come home on the Thursday afternoon. He went to bed, was up on Friday, had breakfast and left at lunchtime for Edinburgh Airport.

“He called me when he arrived at Lloret de Mar that night and said, ‘Everything is fine. The flight was good. We’re heading to the hotel now’. I said to Brian, ‘Look after him’. Brian said, ‘Look, Dad, stop worrying. Everything will be okay’.

“That was the last I heard from Craig.”

Taxi driver Ian, from Coatbridge, had been on the night shift and received a call from a number he didn’t recognise. When he got home, a stunned Antoinette was waiting up.

“She said, ‘I’ve had a call from Brian saying Craig’s dead. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ She was starting to get upset, so I phoned one of the boys and he said Craig had been killed after someone ran past him and punched him in the face. I called Brian. He couldn’t talk, he was hysterical.

“I called the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) and they confirmed it. We got the next flight out.”

Ian felt compelled to speak out about the “disgusting” treatment he and Antoinette received at the hands of the Spanish police when they went to the morgue to identify his body.

Dad Ian with the late Antoinette and David Swindle

He said: “This has always stuck in my throat. They took us downstairs and there was a window with a venetian blind behind it. They asked me to ‘ye or nae’ to the question, ‘Is this your son, Craig?’ They said they’d pull the blind up and we had to answer then.

“There was a black body bag which they unzipped. Craig was still lying the way he’d been picked up off the ground, his eyes and mouth open, dirt all over him. Antoinette collapsed.

“The way the Spanish police treated us and got away with it is disgusting. They had no respect or morals whatsoever.The way we’ve been treated has been an absolute disgrace - and our British and Scottish Governments are allowing it.”

Before leaving for home, Ian said he spoke to the Spanish cop in charge and asked him how confident he was of making an arrest. “He said, ‘Very confident’. I feel that was just to get me out the country, away from Lloret de Mar, to stop affecting tourism.

“When I got home and asked for updates, I’d be told there was nothing. At the end of the day, I couldn’t afford to keep flying back and forth to contest that.

“Craig isn’t the first fatality. There have been an awful lot of other working class families in similar cases who just can’t afford to keep flying over. You can’t survive like that.

“God forgive me, but this won’t be the last death. I just hope the Maxwells won’t be sitting five years down the line like me with no answers.”

Craig's aunt Gillian Veldon visits the scene of the crime with David Swindle (BBC)

In April 2017, 27-year-old Kirsty, from Livingston, arrived in Benidorm for her friend’s hen party. Late in the night, Kirsty ended up in a room full of strangers - five men from Nottingham - where she fell from the window of their 10th-floor room. Her family, too, is the focus of the documentary as they continue to travel to the holiday resort to piece together what happened.

“I can’t say anything to the Maxwells,” said Ian. “You have to be in that position. If I can say, I wish the Maxwells all the best. Kirsty’s husband Adam just looks a broken man. You can see the pain and strain on parents’ faces too. It takes its toll on your whole life.

“Life in our home changed that day Craig died. The atmosphere, everything changed. And it was never the same again.

“Antoinette knew she was dying. She would say, ‘Ian, this has destroyed us. When I go, please live your life. Do what you have to do’. I don’t know if she wanted me to give up because it took an awful toll on our lives, health and marriage. I just think she was saying, ‘Go and live whatever’s left of your life’.

The unsolved death of Kirsty Maxwell (left) is explored in the BBC documentary also

“I don’t know if we’d ever get justice in terms of a conviction, but Antoinette just wanted closure for her son. They’re both gone now. She’ll know now who did it and what happened. But she went to her death after six years of fighting and fighting and getting nowhere. That’s incredible, that.”

Ian blasted the British and Scottish Governments, saying he’s had “no help at all.”

“I read in papers that the FCO has been assisting my family in this sad time. That’s a lot of rubbish. They don’t assist you. No one is doing anything.”

Ian has even been in touch with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to ask for help. He said she has never replied.

“All I’m looking for is assistance and advice,” said Ian. “Craig paid all his taxes to the British Government. Now, in his time of need, it’s like they don’t want to know he’s a British citizen. I thought this was a United Kingdom.

“There needs to be a task force, allowing Scottish police to intervene in cases like this abroad.”

Just now, as it stands, investigators have trawled through CCTV footage and have been looking to trace four Frenchmen and a blonde women - thought to be a Venezuelan called Lili - in connection with Craig’s death.

Fearing for the future, Ian said: “We get a lead, then hit a brick wall. But I hope this documentary goes to all parts of the UK, maybe further abroad, and then we do get a lead.

Craig's aunt Gillian lays flowers at the scene where he died in the BBC documentary (BBC)

“We’ve been doing social media for six years now - somebody knows something. The person who did it may not have intended to kill Craig, we’ve always said it. Even if they came forward and there’s no conviction, it would be closure for the family.”

Ian’s sister-in-law Gillian features in the documentary as Ian was too unwell to travel. She said the family has been fighting non-stop for answers for too long now and “can’t keep doing it.”

“I feel the same,” said Ian. “You need to be in the position to know what it’s like. I’ve never even had a police officer at my door to say, ‘Your son has been murdered’.

“The documentary is very powerful, sends out good messages and pulls at the heartstrings.

“When I used to read the paper in the morning, I’d say, ‘Look, there’s a young boy or girl been killed abroad’ and I’d flip the page over. I wouldn’t think about it again, but until it comes to your own door, that’s when you understand what families go through.

“Things will never change in the future until it comes to the door of someone important. I wonder if the same treatment would be given to one of our politicians if one of their sons or daughters was, God forbid, murdered? I don’t think so. That’s the only thing that would bring about change.”

Thanking the public for all their support over the years, Ian added: “I just feel sorry we’re not further forward to finding out who killed Craig.”

In a parting message to Evening Times readers, he said: “Just watch when your children and you go to these places. Check with your holiday insurance whether you’re protected - by the Government and police - in case something like this happens.”

Killed Abroad will be shown on BBC One Scotland at 9pm on Monday, August 20