Van driver arrested in Palma after British tourist abducted and sexually assaulted

POLICE have arrested a van driver who abducted a young British tourist on the street of a Spanish holiday hotspot and sexually assaulted her.

The suspect allegedly bundled her into his vehicle after spotting her walking back to her hotel from a nightspot in the Mallorcan capital Palma.

Detectives say he got out of the van and grabbed her by the arm to force her into the passenger’s seat.

He then sped off and sexually assaulted her as he drove along the road.

The British woman, whose age has not been revealed, only managed to escape after the alleged sex offender had to stop at a red light and two people in a car following them who had witnessed the street abduction intervened.

The witnesses managed to take a photograph of the suspect’s licence plate which was key to enabling police to locate the man and arrest him.

The horror incident happened in the early hours of Sunday on Palma’s seafront promenade called the Paseo Maritimo.

The age and nationality of the suspect, arrested a few hours after the incident, has not been revealed.

Confirming the arrest a spokesman for National Police in the Balearic Islands said today: “Officers have arrested a man as the suspected author of a crime of sexual assault, for forcing a tourist into a van and sexually assaulting her.

“The National Police’s UFAM unit initiated an investigation as the result of an incident in the early hours of May 10 on Palma’s seafront promenade which led to the victim filing a formal complaint.

“She had left a nightspot to head to her hotel.

“During her walk back a van driven by a man stopped beside her and he got out to grab hold of her and force her into the vehicle.

“He then began to drive at high speed with her in the passenger seat, leaving her unable to get out.

“Suddenly he introduced his fingers into her private parts.

“He had to stop at a red light and seeing a car pull up beside them, the woman asked for help and was able to escape from the van.

“Moments earlier the two occupants of the car had seen the suspect force the woman into the van and drive off and they had followed to try to help her.

“Before she escaped the van, the witnesses were able to take a picture of the number plate.

“The male van driver was arrested hours later by police on suspicion of being the author of the sexual assault.”

On May 1 a foreign tourist whose nationality has not been revealed was allegedly sexually assaulted on waste ground in Manacor halfway between Palma and the island’s east coast by two men she had met in a bar said to have spiked her drink.

The holidaymaker said she started feeling unwell after leaving her drink unattended to go to the toilet.

The men she had met that night reacted by offering to drive her back to her hotel according to police but allegedly took her to waste ground and sexually assaulted her on the back seat of the car.

Police were called by locals she begged for help after managing to escape the vehicle.

Two arrests have been made.