A British boxer who used to train at a gym linked to Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan dramatically confessed to stabbing a Spanish teenager to death and sparking an international manhunt at the start of his Costa del Sol ‘road rage’ murder trial yesterday.
Lewis Briggs, 24, turned round on the witness stand and told his victim’s family sitting immediately behind him almost within arm’s reach: “I want to say sorry. It was never my intention to kill anyone. It was an accident."
Slain 19-year-old Ulrich Perez’s sister Abril, 25, broke down and had to be comforted by their emotional dad Juan Carlos Espinoza at the Audiencia Provincial Court in Malaga as the nine jurors looked on.
The tense moment came after the British expat claimed he had committed a “stupid error, the worst of my life” by confronting Ulrich with a knife hidden in his hand he had snatched from the glove compartment of his rented Mercedes after an exchange of words moments earlier on a zebra crossing.
The Spanish youngster collapsed and died after Briggs kicked and punched him and then stabbed him in the heart just after 2.30pm on November 18th, 2020 as he walked back to his home in Diana Park near Marbella after going to the supermarket for his mum.
European Arrest Warrant
He was held the following month near Leeds on a European Arrest Warrant after allegedly trying to throw cops off his scent by fitting stolen number plates on the Merc and arranging for it to be shipped back to England before fleeing Spain and returning to the UK via Portugal.
The self-confessed killer, facing more than 23 years in prison if convicted of crimes including one of the most serious types of murder under Spanish law, used his time on the stand to claim he was under the effect of drink and drugs after an all-night party at the time and paint his victim as the more aggressive man.
He answered ‘Yes’ both times under cross-examination by public prosecutor Pablo Ibanez when he asked him “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?"
Rocio Amigo, a private lawyer acting for his victim’s family who is also prosecuting Briggs as part of the same trial, interrupted him when he insisted he “stopped almost immediately” after accusing Ulrich of insulting his girlfriend in the passenger seat and running after their Mercedes.
Video recording
She said a video recording of the crime jurors would watch later in the trial showed nearly two minutes passed before the initial incident and the subsequent physical attack and fatal stabbing after the Brit returned to "hunt him down".
Briggs, whose defence lawyer said at the start of yesterday's hearing she would accept a prison sentence of just over three and a half years for her client, claimed under cross-examination: “I remember kicking him and him getting hold of my leg and then the collar of my top and trying to pull me to the ground.
“That’s when I punched him a couple of times and suddenly saw the blood. I was carrying a knife in my hand which was small and had a button on it to open it but I didn’t mean to use it or do him any serious harm.
“I only grabbed it because when he ran behind my car I could see in the rear-view mirror he had his hand in his pocket and I didn’t know why. Everything happened so fast. I wasn’t thinking properly.”
He denied the theft of a neighbour’s number plates after the crime, blaming it on his dad who died while he was on remand in a Spanish prison after being extradited in January 2021 and claiming his late father had also arranged for the return of the hired Merc to the UK and helped him flee Spain by finding a friend to drive him to Portugal where he bought a plane ticket to England.
Testimony
In start-stop testimony punctuated by her difficulty in controlling her emotions, former trainee chef Ulrich’s tearful mum Tatiana Perez Martinez said after taking the witness stand following the Brit’s court confession: “My son left our home because I sent him to buy some washing up powder we needed.
“I’d grounded him a few days earlier because he’d lost his ID and given the Covid restrictions still in place I didn't think it was a good thing to have happened.
“A neighbour told me something had happened to Ulrich and because I knew he was a bit clumsy I thought at first he’d fallen on the stairs and broken a bone.
“When I reached the street it was full of police and I saw someone over him trying to revive him.”
The mum-of-three, 43, added: “Ulrich’s older sister woke up shouting for the next six months. She couldn’t sleep alone.
“My youngest boy Dylan who is six still comes home from school, saying ‘Hello Ulrich.’”
Despite Briggs’ confession, the trial will continue and jurors will be tasked with deciding whether he is guilty of a charge of simple homicide under Spanish law or one of the worst types of murder with aggravants, which will be key to determining the length of his prison sentence.
Kinahan gym
He is said to have boxed often at the MGM gym, which has now closed after being rebranded as the MTK Marbella gym but welcomed stars like Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and was closely linked to Daniel Kinahan who is currently holed up in Dubai.
Private prosecutors acting for his victim’s family say well-built Briggs, who admitted in court today he was a personal trainer who taught clients boxing and claimed to have fought professionally, used his knowledge to launch a surprise attack on his “tall but skinny 10-stone victim” which left him with no chance of defending himself.
They want him jailed for a total of just over 23 years if convicted of murder and crimes relating to the theft and use of stolen number plates on the Merc.
Public prosecutors are demanding a prison sentence totalling 16 years - 14 for the fatal knife attack which they say was the result of an “intention to end Ulrich's life".
Briggs’ defence Ana Maria Hidalgo Perez told the court yesterday she felt a prison sentence of just three years and eight months was the right punishment for an incident she accused Ulrich of provoking and ended in an act of stupidity by her "imbecile" client.
She urged jurors to take into account mitigating factors like the Brit's cocaine use before the crime, his court confession and more than £40,000 compensation he had arranged to pay his victim’s family in her opening speech in court.
The expat, currently on bail after two years in prison on remand without trial, covered up his face with his hand and then his lawyer’s jacket to avoid waiting photographers as he left the court building.
Speaking after the end of the first day’s hearing, Ulrich’s furious dad said on the steps of the court: “I don’t believe a word of what my son's killer says. His apology means nothing.
“He speaks perfect Spanish because he’s lived in Spain since he was a child. He’s putting on an English accent and pretending he speaks Spanish worse than he does.
“He can try to call this dress this up however he wants but I’m confident it will be proven this was a cold-blooded murder.
“The fact he’s willing to blame his dead dad, his own flesh and blood, for trying to help him abscond when he’s not here to defend himself in court shows you just what type of man he is.”
The trial, due to finish early next week, continues today.
