We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
SPANISH POLICE HAVE arrested a German fugitive suspected of slitting his girlfriend’s throat and have safely recovered the couple’s 18-month-old toddler.
Officers arrested the unidentified man at a block of short-stay apartments in Lloret de Mar, a seaside resort roughly 70 kilometres northeast of Barcelona where he was hiding with the baby boy, police said in a statement.
He had been on the run since German police found the body of his 20-year-old girlfriend inside plastic garbage bags at the couple’s apartment in the town of Freyung, southeastern Germany, at the end of October.
Police said the man recently got a “macabre” tattoo inked on his upper arm with the name of his deceased girlfriend, her birthday as well the suspected date of her murder – 27/10/2016 – beside a cross along with the words ‘Thank you for everything’ in Spanish.
Spanish police said they began looking for the man after they were alerted by their German counterparts that he may have fled to Spain as he made his way to North Africa.
The man is suspected of having used his girlfriend’s mobile phone after he killed her to update her Facebook and other social media profiles to try to throw off investigators.
Police took the toddler to a juvenile welfare home which will look after him until German social services staff arrive in Spain to pick him up.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
He kept the kids alive for that he’s a hero
@Darren Farrell: Agree totally
Looks like other people in the club and Parents knew they were going to the Caves. From reports it was done before and was considered normal for the team
But whatever the reasons why they went down there, if it was not for him the outcome may have been very different and the parents have said near enough the same thing. He did a great job along with the rescuers. Great work by all and again, thoughts to the diver who lost his life doing what these people do when push comes to shove
@Darren Farrell: there’s a story that the boys went in on the own and when they didn’t return the coach went to look for them and found the bikes outside the cave. He went in to help get them out and stayed with them when he couldn’t get them out bcos of the water. He’s a hero. Typical western media, full of ..it
@Eamonn Connaghan: I looked this up, interesting, but I think it was the head coach who went looking when some team members were un-contactable about a match that evening.. and it was the head coach, Nopparat Khanthavong, who found the bicycles beside the cave entrance but the junior coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, seems to have been with the boys – but that does not make him any less a hero whichever side you read it – the story here is not quite clear did the junior coach follow the boys as he had been advised “Make sure you ride your bicycle behind them when you are travelling around, so you can keep a lookout,” – so there is certainly a good chance that he did not lead them regardless..
and have we not to rescue people every other week it seems, in Ireland, caught by the rising tides or other events….. still a hero no matter how it started
Fear of liability is one of the reasons why we have a growing problem with childhood obesity. Mr Chanthawong is a volunteer who kindly gave his spare time to help kids less fortunate than himself. At 25 the man is practically a child himself. I know when I was 25 I was probably passed out drunk somewhere rather than spend my Saturday mornings helping kids. He’s a hero.
@BlueSkyThinking:
Excellent point
@BlueSkyThinking: Fear of liability and the hours of garda vetting forms, child protection training, risk assessments, sports training and possibly first aid training to give up your own time to help other people’s kids. But then people who would never do anything can sit back and critize you.
The coach is an absolute hero!
He ration his supplies to help the kids alive instead of eating it himself he did a great job keeping the alive in darkness and water without him they won’t have survived (there will be critics saying he shouldn’t do that or this but maybe put them in a cave for 2 weeks and see what mental and physical properties it takes
The caves are used by kids all the time from the local area. It’s kinda like a place that they date each other to go into. The monsoon came a little early than expected.
Bunch of teenagers would of gone in there with or without the coach. They only survived because of his guidance under pressure. Plenty of armchair critics
@Anthony Healy: * dare, not date
@Anthony Healy: Oh I liked “date” better…. but thank you for the clarification — we do forget all the “silly” things we did as youngsters… “silly” in quotes because that are not silly really – without “adventure” the human race would get nowhere
Our politicians leave our children live on our streets and we re-elect them. Imagine an Irish politician minding those children. A TD would be first out of the cave.
@Cranky: a TD would have left them to it to fend for themselves!
@Cranky: please enlighten us as to how many children are left to live on our streets?
@offtheball: surely the number is only on the dozens, disregarding the thousands on the homeless list of course
@Cranky: yawn
He’s a good man who put the kids first. Hopefully he gets over this.
All is well that ends well.thank god.
@Braonain Proinseas: A man died trying to rescue them. It didn’t end well
@Kal Ipers: agreed.
Poor judgement to lead the group that deep in during the monsoon season and apparently there is warnings.
However it was heroic how he lead the group once trapped.
Can’t ignore that his error did lead to one death though.
@Kal Ipers: yes tragic and I’m very sorry, but I think my point was all the children got out safely.
@Lad_The: he led them so far in because they couldn’t get out because of the flash flooding!
@Simone Rapple: fair enuff if that’s true. I stand corrected.
@Lad_The: let’s wait and see the exact circumstances. There’s a lot of speculation around.
Typical western media
Thank god the children and coach survived and for the bravery of the rescuers-a good news story for a change
@Ger Foley: can’t agree Ger – the family of the dead man won’t see it as a good news story.
@offtheball: I’d be nearly sure you’re wrong. They like the rest of Thailand would have been praying for the safety of those boys and while I’m sure they’re not happy are probably able to take some consolation in their loss. When also taking into account he was retired military in a country regularly rocked by rebellions and border skirmishes it may be a loss they’d been prepared for for some time. Just speculating of course.
@Sweet George:
The writers can write anything, I’m sure none of the writers ever had the chance to hear it first hand from any of the 13 on who led whom or who followed whom. So I would read the article with a pinch of salt. But to judge him unfit to be in charge of the children while you never knew him is harsh. It was an unfortunate event when something out of norm to them (exploring the cave) turned to be so wrong. Because monsoon came early this year. But he has tried his best to keep the children alive. Look at how mentally strong and calm the children are when they were found. Experts expected them to take weeks to be strong enough to get out of there but they took only days that shows they were not broken. You have to give credit to that young man for doing a good job being their protector.
Media hoping he would make it out alive so they can slaughter him!
That cartoon is definitely inspired by the ribenaad.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say