Police arrested a 20-year-old man and his 42-year-old mother early on Tuesday, over the killing of a 51-year-old man in Peyia in the Paphos district on Monday evening. The son has reportedly admitted under questioning to the events that led to his stepfather’s death.
A family row appears to have been behind the killing, police inquiries suggest. The dead man, a British national living in Peyia, shared a home with his second wife and her son a few hundred metres from the scene.
In a statement to police, the 20-year-old said that on Monday afternoon he noticed his mother and stepfather arguing fiercely, and that when he went over he saw the 51-year-old hitting her. He said he intervened and a struggle followed, during which his stepfather tried to strike him with a knife.
According to his account, he wounded the 51-year-old with the knife during the struggle. Seeing the injury was serious, he said, he and his mother put his stepfather into a car to take him to Paphos Hospital.
He told police they lost control of the car a short distance from the house and abandoned it where it was later found. His mother then called the ambulance service to report a car with an injured man inside, and the two left. The woman whose call first alerted the authorities was therefore the dead man’s wife.
Police traced the pair after identifying the car’s owner. Both were arrested under court warrants and are expected to appear before the Paphos District Court later on Tuesday for remand orders.
A post-mortem examination is due at 10am on Tuesday to establish the exact cause of death. Police are still searching for evidence, chiefly the weapon.
Paphos CID is investigating.
