Walter Finch
A YOUNG British boxer who stabbed a Spanish teenager to death and fled Spain dramatically confessed to the crime in court yesterday.
Lewis Briggs, 24, triggered an international manhunt after a road rage incident in Estepona saw him assault and kill Ulrich Perez, 19, in 2020.
On the first day of his murder trial in Malaga yesterday, he told the victim’s family: “I want to say sorry. It was never my intention to kill anyone. It was an accident.”
Public prosecutor Pablo Ibanez asked Briggs on the witness stand under cross examination: ‘Were you involved in an incident with a pedestrian that day’ and ‘Did you turn round and get out of your car with a knife and stab him?’
READ MORE: British expat boxer finally stands trial over horror road rage murder of teen in Spain’s Estepona
The British expat answered ‘yes’ both times.
The long-awaited trial, which features a jury of nine, began in earnest yesterday after a period in which local sources told the Olive Press that Briggs had been seen ‘down Puerto Banus driving a flash car’ and had even travelled abroad to take a holiday in Dubai.
The prosecution is pushing for Briggs, who has already been arrested for drug trafficking and carrying a knife, to be sentenced to 23 years in prison if convicted of all the crimes he’s been charged with.
Briggs’ defence lawyer argued that jail time of three years and eight months would be appropriate for the crime after accusing Perez of ‘provoking’ the incident and calling her client an ‘imbecile’.
READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Expat British boxer accused of stabbing teen to death on Spain’s Costa del Sol pictured
Taking to the stand, Briggs told the jury the attack was a ‘stupid error, the worst of my life.’
The Benahavis resident used his time to claim that his actions should be mitigated by the fact that he had been coming off the tail end of a 24-hour drink and drugs bender when he attacked his victim.
The boxer and personal trainer has already served time in jail while awaiting a trial that never arrived, meaning he was released after the statutory two years.
Briggs and Perez got into a row after Perez was almost knocked down by Briggs in his white Mercedes at a zebra crossing in Diana Park on November 18.
Perez had been returning home from the supermarket clutching several bags of shopping.
It is alleged that Briggs then parked up the car, got out and attacked Perez using his boxing training that he had learned at the former Kinahan cartel-connected MGM gym in Marbella, which has welcomed stars like Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Frank Bruno and Graeme Souness.
The prosecution claimed in documents that Briggs launched a flurry of blows with ‘enough force to lift [Perez] up like a doll.’
He then ‘produced a knife he had hidden in his hand and with the precise and accurate blow of someone who knows how to kill, stabbed him in the heart.’
After the attack, which took place in broad daylight in front of horrified onlookers, Briggs made a ‘conscious and premeditated’ plan to flee Spain and fly to the UK via Portugal.
The prosecution accused Briggs of a well-executed plan to act like normal immediately after the crime, visiting his girlfriend’s house and driving her to his parents’ house before returning to his own home and cleaning down his car.
He then ‘stole some number plates from the garage in his housing estate, changed them by falsifying the identification to avoid his vehicle being recognised, asked a transport company to transport the vehicle to England, and escaped to England by plane via Portugal.’
Briggs was tracked down and arrested in Leeds not long after in December 2020, from where he was promptly extradited to Spain.
In court, Briggs denied these charges, instead blaming the immaculately orchestrated plan on his father, Andy Briggs, who died in January 2021 while his son was in jail.
Andy was thought to be a recognised figure in both Puerto Banus and the MGM gym, before it was rebranded as MTK to disassociate itself with the Irish mafia.
Sources tell the Olive Press that Andy associated himself with legendary former gangster Marvin Herbert, who has been investigated for over 24 murders and eight shootings.
Herbert worked as a coach at the Kinahans’ MGM gym, where he also said he had worked as an enforcer, and has spoken of cartel boss Daniel Kinahan as ‘family’.
The trial continues today.
