I do remember reading about the case JLFS referred to at the time it happened, and it was certainly shocking. However, the perpetrator did have some kind of grievance, albeit a relatively minor one and most certainly nothing to justify what he did.

And just to reinforce the fact that not all expats ignore crime in Spain, in the last two days I have read about two armed robberies not a million miles away from where I live. In one case a female teacher was shot by robbers (not fatally thank goodness), when she arrived home in Colmenar, and in the other a bread delivery man was attacked with an axe by a masked man trying to steal his takings, here in Velez-Malaga. In both cases, robbery a clear motive.

The recent murder of the Indian student in Salford, however, doesn't seem to have had one other than possibly a racially motivated crime.

And the latest news from Manchester (hasn't even merited a mention in the national news afaik) is a 74 year old woman stabbed in an unprovoked attack at 10.30 am this morning as she waited at a bus stop outside a cemetery in South Manchester. According to witnesses a hooded man simply walked up to her and stabbed her.

Perhaps those of you who complacently assume that this type of crime is confined to gang members attacking each other should take a bit more notice.

I was talking about Spanish neighbours.....not ones from the UK

So was I, No ex pats near me anymore, and I don't integrate too much with expats anyway

Like I say, I watch news here but it's not so interesting when I don't know the places that things happen in, on the other hand both my parents were from Salford and boy if they could only see the difference now.

There is a murder in Manchester area almost everyday, being a Manchester (Mancunian) person it interests me far more than the murders here in Spain.

Well if that is the case, where the Spanish mainly talk about life in the UK then even you must admit that is not the norm.

Same as British people in the UK dont talk about Italy as their main topic of conversation, that would be just weird, plain weird.....

I dunno, they seem to welcome me and accept me as part of the village now and all I can say it's the norm with me, they usually start off with "the weathers not like this in Inglarea is it?" then it progresses from that, and it is almost everyone I bump into. If it's raining they say "just like Inglatera No?

I think English folk are a novelty to them here, I don't know why, I'm just glad they don't meet so many, if they did, then they might think differently.

You only have to look aound on the CDS., all the villas have metal gates which are shut all the time even in the campo. We did too. In our village in the UK most have wooden open type gates, even the multi-million pound ones and they are always open all day. Don't know if they close them before they go to bed.

Funny the Spanish I know when they talk about rain they compare it to Galicia, not Inglatera or even Inglaterra.

They all sound a bit simple to me, are the interbred or something?

Groundhog Day??????

One young guy who lives round the corner from me regales us with all the Premier League football scores every weekend - it's almost like listening to the results on TV on Saturday evening! We've told him countless times that we don't like football, but he's an obsessive so we still have to suffer it. We also get a lot of chat about the UK weather from neighbours, and the Royal Wedding was a popular subject too!

We do talk with them about Spanish topics too, though. I like listening to the older people talking about what their life was like in their younger days, they don't seem overly panicked about La Crisis now, and why would they when they have lived through such hardship and survived.

Maybe that's because you are Spanish??

Who knows, I am just telling you how it is here FWIW I can't speak for where you hang out.

You are most odd?

If you can't accept other peoples views that differ from yours, don't mock them please, you will embarrass yourself. I say it as it is whether you can understand or believe it or not.

I just said it was like Groundhog Day......so WTF are you banging on about me embarassing myself?

Yes must be if you say so, Are you?, because you are even odder thinking that.

My village crowd are lovely ppl and just happen to be interested, odd as that may be to you.

Two days before I left for the UK, I saw three Spanish youths who appeared to be checking out some properties for ease of access. I watched them a while from a distance and when they broke through a fence and set about the windows on one, I phoned the cops.
The cops never arrived and it soon came in dark, so I can only presume they were just left to help themselves.