Crime
Marbella doctor under investigation for nurse's death has stayed in hotels across Malaga province with men and women on numerous occasions
The police have seized his mobile phone to search it for clues relating to the case
Málaga
The National Police have broadened the scope of their investigation into the doctor arrested in connection with the death of a nurse who worked ... with him at Hospital Costa del Sol and to whom he allegedly administered propofol in a hotel room in Marbella.
According to police databases, the 66-year-old detainee has stayed in various hotels across Malaga province with both men and women on numerous occasions.
The police checked the register of accommodation and car hire: a mandatory procedure for all establishments, carried out via the ses.hospedajes platform of the Interior Ministry.
The platform enables accommodation providers to submit the required information about their guests, ranging from personal details to booking details, and make it available to the state security forces.
Upon checking their databases, the National Police discovered that there were "hundreds" of hotel and guesthouse stays in the province of Malaga registered in the doctor's name.
One of the reasons why this has caught the attention of investigators is because the doctor is based and lives in the province, where all of the hotels where he's stayed are.
Furthermore, the doctor himself spontaneously confessed to the police that he had injected propofol into the nurse through her jugular vein. He also said that she had administered it to him.
The body was discovered on the afternoon of Thursday, 1 October. It was the doctor who rang the National Police to report that the woman he was with had died. The pair had been staying at a hotel in Marbella since midday.
They arrived at around 2.20pm, heated up some takeaway food and, after allegedly administering propofol to themselves, fell asleep.
When the first patrols arrived, the doctor was waiting for them on a bench outside the hotel. He accompanied them to the room (number 113), where the police saw the woman, who showed no signs of life.
Paramedics then confirmed the death. Given the unusual circumstances surrounding the incident, the judicial commission was the one to remove the body. The leading theory is that she died from drug poisoning, although only the autopsy results can confirm that.
The police carried out a visual inspection of the hotel room. On the bedside table and in the wastebin, they found syringes and two boxes of propofol, apparently containing used vials. Elsewhere in the property and also in the suspect's car, they found a bag containing more medication.
The doctor confessed that he and the nurse had stolen the medicines from the hospital. It had turned into a common practice.
The police arrested him and seized his mobile phone to search it. They are looking into the possibility that this practice (administering drugs outside a hospital setting) may have extended to other people, although the duty judge, who granted the doctor bail, considered this police hypothesis to be premature.
Furthermore, the doctor is a sportsman and a keen diver, which could also explain his stays in various parts of the province. The investigation is therefore still at a very early stage.