Five Brits are cleared over death of Benidorm balcony plunge girl Kirsty Maxwell after she walked into the wrong apartment on hen do and fell from 10th floor
- Newly-married Maxwell, 27, from Livingston, fell to her death on April 29 2017
- She accidentally went into the wrong room in Apartamentos Payma in Benidorm
- Five men who were in the room partying became subjects of a homicide investigation, but the investigation has been shelved by Spanish judges
- Judges: 'There is no strong evidence of specific and individualised criminality'
The family of Benidorm plunge girl Kirsty Maxwell have been dealt a devastating blow after losing their fight to persuade judges her death was not an accident.
Grieving parents Brian and Denise Curry had appealed a Spanish judge's decision last September to shelve a criminal probe into her death and put five Brits made homicide suspects in the clear.
They went to a higher regional court to try to get the earlier ruling by Benidorm judge Ana Isabel Garcia-Galbis overturned.
But today they faced the prospect of having to end their legal battle without the result they were looking for after the appeal was thrown out.
Kirsty Maxwell, 27, (left) had recently married and was on a hen night when she died in Benidorm on April 29, 2017 after entering the wrong room in an apartment block and fell to her death
Five men - Joseph Graham; Ricky Gammon; Anthony Holehouse; Callum Northridge; and Daniel Bailey who are all from the Nottingham area - had been partying in the room at the time when Maxwell died. Two of the men appeared in court, wearing baseball caps and covering their faces
The apartment block from where Kirsty Maxwell fell to her death on April 29 2017. Maxwell fell from the ninth floor of the apartment block (pictured left and right)
Three Alicante-based judges announced their decision in a 10 page written sentence.
They insisting there was no 'strong evidence' of criminality and nothing to indicate the 27-year-old had not jumped to her death after an alcohol-fuelled hen night out with friends in the famous Costa Blanca resort.Newly-married Kirsty, from Livingston, West Lothian, died just before 8am on April 29 2017 after waking up and walking by mistake into a tenth-floor room at Apartamentos Payma in Benidorm's Little England area next door to her friends' room.
A room in the Apartamentos Payma in Benidorm's Little England similar to the one from which Maxwell fell to her death on April 29 2017
A view looking down from the tenth floor balcony on to the floor below, as shown in a BBC documentary looking at cases involving deaths abroad
She plunged 100ft from room 10E - where the five British men made the subject of a homicide probe had been partying - moments after entering it.
The men - Joseph Graham; Ricky Gammon; Anthony Holehouse; Callum Northridge; and Daniel Bailey who are all from the Nottingham area - were today waking up to the news Kirsty's parents' appeal has failed and their court fight is almost certainly over.
The three judges based at Section Two of Alicante's Provincial Court said: 'Kirsty, affected by alcohol and after consuming the equivalent of 10 spirits the night before, appears to have left her apartment 9A and voluntarily entered 10E where the five men were.
'Nothing points to the contrary,' they said.
'Although it is true cocaine was found in the bathroom of apartment 10E and the dead woman's fingerprints were discovered on an interior bathroom window, it has not been possible to obtain strong evidence of specific and individualised criminality in terms of the victim's death in any of the five men investigated.'
It was not immediately clear on Friday morning if Kirsty's loved ones have been made aware of the court decision.
Well-placed sources said the five British men, who were never formally charged with any crime - as is customary in Spain where charges are only laid shortly before trial - would be waking up to the news as confirmation of the decision was sent to them overnight.
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