Laurence Dollimore
THE 20-year-old suspect accused of stabbing an 11-year-old boy to death in Spain told police it was his ‘other self’ who carried out the killing.
The Spaniard was arrested on Monday some 36 hours after he allegedly stormed a football pitch where children were playing and grabbed a young boy named Mateo.
The child was stabbed 11 times, hitting at least three of his vital organs. The boy died at the scene.
According to reports, in his first conversations with the Guardia Civil, the suspect told them: “It was my other self, it was my copy… I was there, but it wasn’t me.”
The unnamed suspect is said to have fled the scene immediately after the crime and later told police that he headed to his grandparents’ house in the nearby village, where he took a shower.
He also said he threw the murder weapon into a wet and muddy ditch some 700m from where the atrocity took place. Police are still trying to locate it.
According to Prensa Iberica, the suspect has an intellectual disability.
Police honed in on the suspect after he was captured on CCTV walking around the town of Mocejon, around 40 minutes before the killing.
He was seen wearing a t-shirt around his neck, which he is thought to have later used to cover his face.
He is not seen speaking to anyone or stopping before reaching the Angel Tardio sports centre.
The centre was closed, but two groups of children had sneaked in through a hole in its fencing to access its football pitch. The killer used the same hole to enter and exit the scene.
The suspect was allegedly brandishing a knife that he had taken from his father’s house in Mocejon village.
He is said to have approached a group of teenagers aged around 15, before backing away without saying a word.
He is then said to have approached Mateo and two of his friends. The friends immediately ran away, while Mateo was putting his t-shirt on, before finally deciding to run upon realising the danger.
The killer caught up with him and stabbed him 11 times before fleeing the scene.
The Guardia Civil has carried out raids on his grandparents’ and father’s houses in the village of Mocejon, home to around 4,800 inhabitants.
Sources from the Guardia Civil told Informacion that Mateo was chosen at random.
One said: “If he had found another child alone, in the village or in the sports centre, he would have attacked him. He was not looking for anyone in particular.”
