OLIVE PRESS
All about A 12 - page Olive Press
CALPE V ALTEA
COSTA BLANCA
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Vol. 6 Issue 169
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SCAN here for the latest news November 20th - December 3rd 2025
Find out all about two of the Costa Blanca’s most iconic destination towns in our special 12-page supplement inside
COPS BEAT ME UP!
CALPE & ALTE
A
Cosmopolitan ro ck Special www.theolive press.es
Designed by Rachel
T
HE first time I visited Calpe, I was convinced I’d walked arguing amiably over sunscreen. try. It wasn’t the into the wrong coun- one greeted Then some- technically sun that threw me me in Valencian, or even the off, the minority in this and the bay like somePeñon de Ifach looming over this wasn’t confusion – it was Calpe. I realised Costa Blanca. It’s stretch of the And it turns monumental guardian the only was the voices. – it The town out my ears weren’t exaggerating. more than 20,000 people town in Spain with recently crossed to reach that level English drifted from a quietly astonish- international mix. of from a nearby café, a bakery queue, Dutch ing milestone: foreign nationals over now make up But statistics don’t quite capture and German from it on the street. it. You feel a couple to be half of its population. More than The conversations exact – meaning Spanish residents53%, languages mid-sentence, switch are carry three and the menus translations as naturally as a tri-
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FOREIGN DOMINATION: The Peñon de Ifach marks a town of nearly 10,500 foreigners lingual child. Calpe, once a sleepy fishing town, a global rhythm. And this shift has now beats to erything – not just changed evthe entire logic of the faces in its markets, but how it lives and breathes. page
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O LIVE P RESS
Leading Costa del Sol lawyer demands action as Algarve police leave him hospitalised in ‘brutal’ midnight attack
A WELL known expat lawyer has been hospitalised after police and bouncers attacked him on a night out in Portugal. The solicitor, based between Marbella and Alicante, needed treatment after the beating in Lagos. The boss of the well-established legal firm was attacked after being violently ejected from a bar and went to file a complaint to local police. The British Law Society member,
EXCLUSIVE By Jon Clarke
who grew up in Spain, told the Olive Press he was ‘completely shocked’ to be beaten up for ‘absolutely no reason’. The father-of-two had been having a ‘quiet g&t’ with an Irishman, who was also on holiday. “One minute I was at the bar chatting with this guy, Matt, and the next I was picked up and ejected from BATTERING: the place,” he reThe lawyer was vealed, insisting firstly attacked on anonymity for at Bon Vivant in legal reasons. central Lagos “It was very aggressive and without warning and I ended up on the floor.” But it was then that things took an ever darker turn. Getting up he could see a group of four policemen standing outside the bar, Bon Vivant, and said he wanted to make an ‘official statement’. “I said: ‘I’m a lawyer and it was not acceptable behaviour from the bar staff. YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENCY FOR BENISSA, CALPE, MORAIRA “But they just said 966 112 428 · areacostablanca.com ‘go away,
FUN NIGHT: But the banter ended abruptly soon after pic was taken
go home’ and then suddenly this one cop pushed me over violently, before taking me down a side street. “I was then knocked on the head and fell over. It was really brutal and shocking and I thought I was not going to get out of it.” Somehow though he managed to get away and he carefully circled back to the square a short while later to get photos of the police - who are part of the PFP security force - for evidence. He then headed back to his hotel he was staying at with his two adult daughters.
Headlock
“I decided to take a longer route home, via the central square, Jardin de la Constitucion, and it was there when I was suddenly attacked again.” He continued: “These two people literally bounded up and jumped on me from behind. “They put me in a headlock and started strangling me. They wanted me to pass out.” When he came to, he was ‘very dazed and disorientated’ and assumed he’d
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Gore
November 2025
Spain’s expat capital, reaches a global milesto ne, explains Dilip Kuner
ACCUSED: Squadron of PFP officers outside the club been mugged. Public Prosecutors office, we have es“But I still had my wallet, watch and tablished. phone with me so it was clearly for Alarmingly the Olive Press has found other reasons.” at least three other violent incidents He continued: “I’m sure it was the at Bon Vivant over recent months. police or bouncers who did it and At least two punters were attacked I have no doubt they were in collu- with ‘pepper spray’ by bouncers, sion.” while a woman, Ines Paredes, claims Somehow with the help of a ‘Good she was recently ‘kicked out by the Samaritan’ he got to a local health neck’. centre, where he was treated for cuts, “He almost hit me,” she added in the bruises and a possible broken arm. post on Google. So worried was he of further ramifi- There are even more serious allecations he sent a series of over two gations of a drunk woman being dozen messages with photos of his ‘undressed’ on the dancefloor by ‘a bruised face to the Olive Press ‘for member of staff ’. security’. And when the incident was reported He also sent a series of dramatic to the manager it was dismissed as ‘a voice notes, in which he insisted he joke’. was ‘really frightened’, insisting it All the incidents, including this, were needed to be ‘reported’ by the media. rebuffed by the club’s ‘bar manager’ The lawyer, who worked for leading Marco Monteiro on Google. UK firm Irwin Mitchell for years, has However, a local expat restaurant now filed an official complaint on the owner, told the Olive Press he had Algarve. heard of ‘a few unprovoked incidents’ After going to an official judicial doc- similar to this. tor, he filed the denuncia at the Policia Judiciary (PJ) headquarters in Protect nearby Portimao. It is now being handled by the Lagos “But it is not anyone I know so it would be best to go to the police and see what they say.” It is unsure what will happen next but the lawyer is clear about one thing. “The job of the police is to protect the public,” he said, now back home in Marbella. “It is really important for the courts to properly deal with incidents like this and particularly Bon Vivant, having read all the other negative reports. “I fear if they don’t, there could be much worse cases over the next few months.” When the Olive Press visited the club, a barman insisted he couldn’t ‘recall any incidents like that’. Manager Marco didn’t get back by phone or WhatsApp messages. A police source confirmed to the Olive Press the ‘case is being dealt with by the Lagos prosecutors’.