Walter Finch
A BRITISH murderer who stabbed a Liverpool man to death in Portugal has been arrested in Spain after 17 months on the run.
William Hunter, 34, was dramatically seized by Guardia Civil officers in Alicante on September 15 as he left a luxury apartment complex carrying a suitcase and a black bag.
Footage shows undercover officers tackling Hunter to the ground, handcuffing him and leading him away to a waiting car.
Hunter is wanted in Portugal to serve a 16-year sentence for the brutal killing of his 22-year-old roommate, Elliot Mulligan, in the Algarve resort of Albufeira in April 2022.
Mulligan, from Croxteth in Liverpool, had been living with Hunter at the Correeira Luxury Residence.
In the early hours of April 25, an argument turned deadly when Hunter stabbed him around 24 times in the chest, back, arms and hands.
The young man managed to leap from a balcony and stagger across the garden before collapsing. Emergency services pronounced him dead shortly after 6.30am.
Hunter was convicted of murder in May 2023 but appealed the verdict.
Under Portuguese law, defendants cannot be held on remand for more than two years, and in April 2024 he was released on bail pending the outcome.
Elliot’s mother Gina warned at the time that he would flee, saying: “We know that Hunter will run and flee Portugal. He will be out and, with nothing to lose, free to commit more potentially hideous crimes.”
Her fears were realised when Hunter broke his bail conditions and disappeared, sparking a major manhunt across Europe.
The operation to track him down was coordinated by the UK National Crime Agency, working with Spain’s Guardia Civil fugitive team, the Portuguese Judicial Police and Merseyside Police.
Hunter, understood to be from Northern Ireland but formerly based in the West Derby district of Liverpool, remains in custody in Spain while extradition proceedings are prepared to send him back to Portugal.
He is also expected to face charges over an armed robbery at a jeweller’s in the northern Portuguese city of Esposende earlier this year.
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