Police say two have confessed to killing tourist

TWO MEN have been arrested and have reportedly confessed to the murder of British tourist Graham Mills in Limassol, police told The Sunday Mail yesterday.

An 18-year-old identified as C.M.C, was one of two suspects for Wednesday=s killing of the 41-year-old whose body was found near the old Limassol port on Thursday morning with severe head injuries.

The suspect was arrested at 12.20pm on the Limassol-Paphos highway under Ayios Sylas bridge, after a chase by police. He was taken to the Limassol police station where he reportedly confessed to killing Mills after questioning. The suspect was jobless, police said, and lived in Ayios Spyridonas, Limassol.

The suspect told the police he had committed the murder with another 18-year-old from Limassol whom he named, the CID said.

Police then arrested another man identified as A.K.P, also from Ayios Spyridonas, at 1.35pm, and said he too confessed to the murder. The second suspect was also jobless, police said.

Meanwhile, the victim’s sister and brother-in-law, Karen and Nigel Butler, who arrived in Cyprus on Friday, identified the body yesterday.

Police said that Mills had been murdered because of what they called personal differences. They ruled out theft as a motive because Mills was found with his wallet on him. The victim was reported as having been seen arguing with two men outside a bar in Limassol on Wednesday night and that he followed the two men.

“We will get to the bottom of this case because incidents of this sort give a bad picture of Cyprus to the outside world,” a police spokesman told The Sunday Mail.

“Our tourism will suffer severely if these kinds of crime are committed,” he added.

Graham Mills was an accountant from Tring in Hertfordshire who arrived on the island a week ago. Pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous, who conducted the autopsy, said that he had died from multiple blows with a blunt instrument, possibly a metal crowbar. The murder weapon has not yet been found.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.