Greek police investigating the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old British tourist on Crete have charged a man with the killing.
Myles Litchmore-Dunbar,19, has been charged with the murder of Tyrell Matthews-Burton as well as possession of a weapon.
Police attributed the murder to gang violence between rival groups in Britain. As 19 other Britons arrested in connection with the crime appeared before a public prosecutor on Wednesday, police said they had begun to assemble a picture of two gangs “bent on destroying one another”.
“They had scores to settle long before they arrived here,” said a police officer, Yannis Phillipakis, in Heraklion, the island’s capital. “Unofficially, what we are hearing is that they brought their gang warfare to Crete.”
The murder on Tuesday of Matthews-Burton, a shop assistant, in the island resort of Malia sent shockwaves through Greece.
The young Londoner, described by neighbours as a “little gentleman”, was stabbed in the back and chest as a drunken row quickly turned into a brawl with other British holidaymakers. The ferocity of the attack caused the local coroner, Manolis Michalodimitrakis, who examined the body, to liken the assault to an execution.
With his lung and heart punctured by knife wounds, Matthews-Burton would have died within minutes, he said. The Briton was celebrating his 19th birthday at the time.
“From all the evidence, we have a prime suspect,” said Hara Didaki, another police officer on the island. “And it seems that he knew the victim.”
Another Briton also allegedly confessed on Wednesdayto participating in the killing, deepening speculation that two knives were used in the attack and prompting the public prosecutor to order that he appear before an investigating magistrate before all 19 are formally charged on Friday.”He is a member of the chief suspect’s gang,” said another police source.
Britons, after Germans, are the most frequent visitors to Greece, with party destinations such as Malia depending on young revellers.
Until the stabbing, officials had managed, with reinforced policing and help from Scotland Yard, to rein in the bad behaviour of British youngsters often travelling abroad for the first time.
“From what I am told by other tourists, these kids were at war,” sighed Giorgos Xedakis, a local shopkeeper. “It was just a matter of time before one of them died. And, in the end, it happened here.”
