Suspected football hooligan Lewis Andrews has had his trial in Albufeira suspended as the Portuguese authorities don’t know where he lives.
The man was arrested in 2004 amid the street violence that erupted in several locations across the Algarve, most particularly in Albufeira, and two days later was deported.
Police at Heathrow interviewed Andrews and said there was to be no further action by the Portuguese authorities. This was premature as the Portuguese state has ten years in which to try the case and, for reasons best known to the judiciary, decided to go to trial nine and half years later.
Lewis Andrews, Richard Feeman and Wayne Finney were meant to appear in court in Albufeira on Monday but when contacted by Sky Sport last week Andrews knew nothing of his impending trial date, expressing shock that he was to face trial nearly ten years after he was arrested, accused and then deported by the Portuguese police.
A further 21 men similarly treated in 2004 have seen any possibility of court action evaporate as the ten year time limit has come and gone.
Not so for the remaining three. Under the vagaries of the Portuguese legal system Andrews has to be in court or he can not be tried.
The other two men can be tried, judged and sentenced in their absence with the worry then of the UK police responding to an European Arrest Warrant issued by Portugal which they will as the views and opinions of any UK judicial authority is irrelavent.
The three were charged in December 2004 so Andrews needs to remain in the UK or elsewhere until the new year.
It is hoped that the courts will find a way of kicking these cases into the long grass as the evidence, such as it is, relies on police statements, is old and therefore unreliable.
This delaying tactic has been used many time before, most notably in the Serena Wylde case when the British woman, taken to court by her lawyer, was denied her day in court by the Portuguese judge who called in sick on the trial date, the new date arranged being conveniently outside the ten year period.
