Seriously Ill Brit Expat Still In Andalusian Jail

Robert Mansfield-Hewitt, 51, spent the Festive Season behind bars in a Spanish jail whilst still denying he knows anything about a massive haul of hashish found in a San Roquel property he’d rented whilst on a business trip last June.

According to his family and friends, Mansfield-Hewitt is confused and miserable at not being able to celebrate Christmas and the New Year in the usual way, especially as he hasn’t yet been charged with any offence. To date, he’s been denied bail twice, due mostly to the fact that police discovered a Japanese samurai sword in the property’s living room in addition to a large haul of drugs on the patio and in the garage. Worse still, the Briton is suffering from ascites, a serious disease affecting liver function.

Mansfield-Hewitt works with Genco Holdings, a Gibraltar electrical company, and was in Spain on a business trip when he was arrested. Just before Christmas, his personal assistant Pilar Ford organised a raffle which raised £200 in order to allow him to buy necessities such as telephone credit and shampoo as well as books to read, telling local reporters he’s locked in a hell-hole along with EFTA terrorists and was even placed in solitary confinement at one point. Throughout his ordeal to date, he’s kept protesting his innocence, and his PA is increasingly concerned about his health.

Another of his friends, Chichester-based RAF padre Rebekar Cannon, told reporters he’s in a hopeless stalemate, adding she’s been unable to speak with him for several months as telephone calls are only permitted if there’s enough credit on prisoners’ phones. His family’s letters are being returned unopened. The owner of the rental property, one Moroccan-Gibraltarian, has not yet been arrested in connection with the huge drugs haul, but is known to Spanish police as he was charged in 2018 for bringing a quantity of cocaine into Gibraltar with intent to sell it. The case, it seems, was later dropped.