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Vol. 8 Issue 205
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May 9th - May 22nd 2025
Discover the littleknown highlights that will illuminate any trip you make to Malaga See page 10
DISGRACE Half year on: More calls for Mazon to go as anniversary marks tragic floods update
EXCLUSIVE
Jody partner: I’m innocent THE alleged mastermind behind one of Spain’s biggest investment frauds has insisted he’s innocent. Darren Kirby, who founded infamous Continental Wealth Management (CWM), told the Olive Press he left Spain with ‘just €50’ in his pocket. This was despite his firm leaving hundreds of elderly expats ‘around €35 million’ out of pocket when it collapsed in 2017. Having fled Spain, first for Australia and then Cambodia, he is now living in London, working in pubs. The 60-year-old told the Olive Press this week, he was ‘aware’ of various lawsuits against his former firm and that his ex-partner Jody Smart (top) had just been sentenced to three years in prison. However, he insisted he was innocent and ‘there was no fraud committed by CWM’.
TRAUMA: Children who lived through the devastating floods (left) have been suffering with mental scars
No money
The former financial advisor also claimed he had made ‘no money’ from the offshore investment scheme that he set up in Alicante in 2010. In a bombshell phone interview from the UK, he insisted his ex-partner Jody, now Jody Pearson, had ‘stolen everything from me’. “She even took my Savile Row suit and a sculpture of my baby daughter when she was just six months old,” he claimed. Kirby also insisted he ‘transferred everything’ into Jody’s name in 2015 on the advice of lawyers. She was left with ‘all the assets, totally, completely,’ he claimed. This even included the Costa Blanca villa that Kirby had been ‘planning to retire in’. “Everyone says I ran away – I didn't run away,” he insisted this week, speaking publicly for the first time. “But as soon as I left, Jody stripped all my assets, the cars – and a lot more too.” The Olive Press will be revealing more of his sensational claims about the CWM scandal over the coming weeks. See Payback Time, page 6
AN alarming 70,000 children are still living in squalor, trauma and uncertainty since the disastrous floods ripped through Valencia six months ago. Anger is mounting against Valencia region president Carlos Mazon over the October 29 deluge that left 228 people dead. So far six large demonstrations have demanded his resignation given most victims had died well before an official regional government warning message was sent to mobile phones. Locals are also furious at how little has been done since the catastrophic storm turned quiet towns into disaster zones, leveling more than 75,000 homes in its path. While officials promised a swift recovery, the reality on the ground is devastating - and it’s children who are suffering the most. “We’ve been caring for kids whose childhoods were literally stolen by this flood,” said Rodrigo Hernandez, head of Save the Children’s flood emergency
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response. “Things are slowly improving for some, but the job is far from done.” That’s certainly not the case for Eduvmary Lopez (pictured left), a single mum, who lives with her 10-year-old son and her baby daughter in a Paiporta flat riven by damp. “The mould has destroyed everything,” she said. “The woodwork, the clothes - all gone. My children have caught respiratory infections.
Infections
“And every time it rains, my eldest son panics and begs me to pick him up from school.” She tries to calm him with emergency plans. “I tell him: if it floods again, go upstairs, don’t come home, and help your classmates. But I shouldn’t have to say that to a 10-year-old.” Carol, another local mother, fears for her five-year-old daughter’s mental health. “I tried to act normal when the storm hit, but she remembers. She talks about the water, the mud… even now, she’s scared
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when we walk through town.” According to Save the Children, the psychological toll is staggering. Children are terrified of weather, struggle to sleep, and have shown signs of depression, rage and emotional shutdown. Adolescents, in particular, are suffering in silence. “Mental health services for children must be urgently expanded,” said Hernandez. “This disaster has left invisible scars on thousands of young people.” And the flood didn’t just destroy homes - it shattered classrooms too. Nearly 40,000 children were left without schooling in the immediate aftermath. Even now, some are still being taught in makeshift barracks, while others have missed entire subjects. “With the school year ending, urgent action is needed to help kids catch up,” said Hernandez. “They shouldn’t be punished by having to repeat the year - it’s unfair and socially damaging.” Despite over €1.2 billion being poured into recovery efforts, thousands of families remain in overcrowded, unhealthy housing. And the most vulnerable - those in informal or contractless rentals - have fallen through the cracks. “We need stronger housing supEstablished 1989
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port now,” warned Hernandez. “Children are growing up in toxic, unsafe environments. Their development, their future, their health is at risk.” His charity has opened seven safe spaces where social workers and psychologists offer care, play, therapy, and schooling in secure, child-friendly environments. “These centres give kids a chance to be kids again,” said Hernandez. “To laugh, to learn, to begin healing. But they can’t undo six months of pain alone.” As the humanitarian crisis drags on, protesters have zeroed in on leader Mazon, accusing him of mismanagement and prioritising ‘press conferences over people’. Banners reading ‘Six Months, Still No Home’ and ‘Your Speeches Won’t Keep Us Dry’ filled Valencia city during a recenteek’s mass demonstration. Environmentalists meanwhile, point to poor urban planning on flood zones and the destruction of wetlands as reasons the floods were so destructive. One protester told the Olive Press: “This isn’t just a housing crisis. It’s a full-blown social emergency. The kids of Valencia have been forgotten. And people are done with waiting.” Opinion Page 6
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