David Familton (above) is facing years in jail in Greece for an assault ten years ago – after calling British police last week to report a break-in at his home in Surrey
A father-of-one is facing jail in Greece for an assault ten years ago – after calling British police last week to report a break-in at his home in Surrey.
David Familton rang 999 after intruders ransacked his flat but was left stunned when cops later arrested him instead for beating up a holidaymaker in Crete in 2009 when he worked as a nightclub doorman.
The 35-year-old from Dorking insists he is innocent despite being convicted in his absence of GBH and affray by a Greek court in 2015.
He is now battling plans to extradite him to Crete in the new year where he could serve nearly seven years behind bars for a crime he maintains he did not commit.
Speaking to MailOnline he said: ‘I’m thankful to be able to spend this Christmas with my son – but what about the next seven Christmases? What about the next seven birthdays?
‘My world has fallen apart and at this point I am lost. I am a strong person and I have dealt with a lot in my life but at this point I am truly broken and feel helpless and at the mercy of a Greek judicial system that I feel is both corrupt and violent.’
The 35-year-old rang 999 after intruders ransacked his flat but was left stunned when cops later arrested him instead for beating up a holidaymaker in Crete in 2009 when he worked as a nightclub doorman
He is now battling plans to extradite him to Crete in the new year where he could serve nearly seven years behind bars for a crime he maintains he did not commit
Mr Familton has lived a normal life over the last decade – even returning to Crete in 2010 without any problems – but was arrested at his home, two days after reporting the break-in this month.
Mr Familton told MailOnline: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong, I’ve been working, paying taxes and voting for the last ten years so if I’m a fugitive I must be the worst fugitive in history.’
The builder said the police came round to investigate after his house was broken into.
‘The following Monday I get a call from them arranging to come and take a statement but they asked for my date of birth and mother’s maiden name, which I thought was odd but gave the information anyway and thought nothing more.
‘I came home that evening and was arrested at my door, taken to Staines police station by order of the National Crime Agency.
‘I spent a night in the cells, was fingerprinted, swabbed for DNA and in the morning taken to Westminster Magistrates court where I was informed I was to be extradited to Greece for GBH with intent and affray to which I was sentenced in my absence in 2015.’
The assault is said to have taken place in July 2009 when Mr Familton was working as a doorman at a nightclub called Venue in the Crete party resort of Malia, popular with young British tourists.
Speaking to MailOnline he said: ‘My world has fallen apart and at this point I am lost. I am a strong person and I have dealt with a lot in my life but at this point I am truly broken and feel helpless and at the mercy of a Greek judicial system that I feel is both corrupt and violent’
Mr Familton has lived a normal life over the last decade – even returning to Crete in 2010 without any problems – but was arrested at his home, two days after reporting the break-in this month
The assault is said to have taken place in July 2009 when Mr Familton was working as a doorman at a nightclub called Venue in the Crete party resort of Malia (above), popular with young British tourists
Mr Familton said he remembered a police car pulling up to the front of the club and initially thought the police were going to order the doors be shut to drown out loud music blaring from inside.
However, he recalled: ‘The car slowed down and someone in the back pointed at me.
‘At that moment a second police car pulled up and three Greek policemen jumped out, grabbed me, cuffed me and dragged me down the road to where five other English lads were cuffed and stood at the side of the road.
‘They had clearly been fighting and someone had been taken to hospital with severe head injuries.
‘We were bundled into police cars and taken to the police station where I spent a night in a hot sweaty concrete room with around 15 other prisoners.
‘The next day I was questioned but despite me telling them I was nowhere near any fight the Greek police were quite rough and beat me.
‘I was informed that I was to be charged with attempted murder and my first response was to laugh in disbelief.
‘A few days later myself and the other co-accused were taken to court, where it was revealed that the man they were looking for in connection with the crime had the same or a similar tattoo to mine.
Mr Familton says he was wrongly arrested because police were looking for a man with a similar tattoo (the star above)
Mr Familton said the hearing was held in Greek and that he had no translator to help him understand what was happening
‘However, my boss and colleagues gave statements saying that I was working at the club and been nowhere near any sort of fight.’
Mr Familton said the hearing was held in Greek and that he had no translator to help him understand what was happening.
He says he paid 1,500 Euro to secure his release and signed a number of papers written Greek without understanding their meaning.
‘My legal team said they would contact me to let me know the latest but I never heard from them again.
‘I continued working in Malia for the rest of the summer before I flew back to the UK.
‘I even went back the following summer to work and had no problems at all. The only time I heard anything about the matter was in 2015 when a friend told me that some of the other lads who had been arrested with me had gone on trial in Crete and been jailed.
‘That was the end of it, I thought, the authorities had got those responsible and I’d moved on with my life so it was a huge shock when I was arrested and this all came up again.’
Mr Familton was told the charge in Crete had been reduced from attempted murder to GBH with intent and affray but that he had been convicted at the same trial as his co-accused.
His passport has now been seized but his family paid a £10,000 bond to release him from custody so he can fight his case.
He is due to appear in court next on January 27 to fight an extradition order from the National Crime Agency to stay in the UK.
The builder said he continued working in Malia that summer and returned a year later without any problems. He said he never heard form his legal team again
If he loses his battle, he faces having to serve a sentence at the notoriously tough Heraklion Prison on Crete
If he loses his battle, he faces having to serve a sentence at the notoriously tough Heraklion Prison on Crete.
A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said: ‘We received a report of a burglary at an address in Dorking High Street on 9 November.
‘Subsequent enquiries revealed that the person who had reported the burglary was wanted under a European arrest warrant in relation to an offence in Greece.
‘He was arrested and taken to Staines police station to be dealt with by the National Crime Agency. Enquiries into the burglary remain ongoing.’