Walter Finch
Anyone with information can contact Crimestoppers anonymously from Spain on 900 926 111.
A HEFTY €12,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of a British double killer who may be hiding among expats on the Costa del Sol.
Kevin Thomas Parle, 45, has been on the run for over 20 years after gunning down two people in Liverpool. More recently he has been linked to a double murder in Estepona.
The Olive Press has reported extensively on the manhunt for Parle over the years, with sources telling us the 6ft 6in (198cm) fugitive was working as muscle for a drug smuggling gang in Marbella’s glitzy Puerto Banus as recently as 2022.
Parle had joined up with Manchester gangs who operated from a warehouse base where narcotics were hidden among pallets of crisps and snacks, police sources said.
Crime-fighting organisation Crimestoppers this week announced the £10,000 bounty for the man nicknamed ‘Hemp’, who is considered extremely dangerous.
The privately-educated Liverpudlian – described as white with a stocky build, ginger hair, blue eyes and a distinctive scar on the left side of his head – remains one of Britain’s most elusive fugitives.
Despite years of high-profile manhunts, including billboards emblazoned with his face being driven around Spain, cash rewards and coverage in true-crime podcasts, he has managed to stay one step ahead of the law.
The fugitive first struck in June 2004 when he allegedly executed 16-year-old Liam Kelly over a measly £200 debt.
The teenager was blasted in the chest and arm with a double-barrelled shotgun as he stepped out of a friend’s car on Grafton Street, Liverpool.
Fourteen months later, Parle allegedly struck again in a horrific home invasion. Three masked men burst into 22-year-old Lucy Hargreaves’ house, shooting her dead as she slept on the sofa before torching the property.
Police believe the killers were actually hunting for her boyfriend, who had been in a stolen car that killed a four-year-old boy in 1993.
The dead child’s older brother and another man were later tried for Lucy’s murder but walked free due to lack of evidence.
Parle was initially arrested over the first killing but released on bail – and hasn’t been seen since.
Now British authorities suspect he may have found the perfect hiding spot among thousands of UK expats on Spain’s Costa del Sol, where he could easily blend in unnoticed.
The fugitive has been ‘spotted’ everywhere from the Costa Brava to the Canary Islands, and across Europe and Asia, but none of the sightings have been confirmed.
Most chillingly, those protecting Parle have been connected to the 2019 disappearance of a British father and son in Estepona, Danny and Liam Poole, aged 46 and 22. The case is being treated as double murder by British police.
The pair disappeared in April 2019 after travelling to Costa del Sol town with a suitcase containing €23,000 in cash for a drugs deal.
They were known to have stayed at the upmarket Valle Romano Golf and Resort – they were last seen alive on April 2.
Spanish media first reported on the manhunt in 2011, when detectives believed two other high-profile British fugitives could be hiding on the Malaga coast with Parle’s help.
UK authorities believed Kirk Bradley, 25, and Anthony Downes, 24, had fled to Malaga province as their ideal hideout after a spectacular July 2011 jailbreak, with investigators suspecting Bradley’s personal connection to Parle was a key factor in their escape route to Spain.
Anyone with information can contact Crimestoppers anonymously from Spain on 900 926 111.
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