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Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Moment fists fly as huge fight breaks out at Benidorm swimming pool with brawlers plunging into the water in front of shocked tourists
This is the dramatic moment a violent fight erupted at a Benidorm hotel swimming pool which saw brawlers being pushed into the water as tourists watched on in horror. Footage shows the scuffle unfolding on the poolside of a hotel in the Spanish holiday hot-spot. Two men wearing swimming trunks are shown being brutally slammed by a man dressed in all black, while another man in a white T-shirt is seen targeting another sunbather. As the video goes on, more men join in on the bust-up, targeting the man in white, which results in him suddenly being thrown into the pool. He quickly emerges and pushes a man into the water in retaliation, while his pal dressed in black continues to square up to a group of sunbathers. A separate angle of the bust-up shows the man in black being savagely pushed into the water by a man in blue swimming trunks. But when he gets out of the pool he begins to throw a violent flurry of punches and kicks while a group of men retaliate. An England flag can be see hanging in the background with the words 'Ash's Stag 2025, but it is unclear whether the men involved are British, or why the fight broke out in the first place A violent fight erupted at a Benidorm hotel swimming pool which saw brawlers being pushed into the water The clip has gone viral on social media, and has racked up nearly 300,000 views on TikTok The clip has gone viral on social media, and has racked up nearly 300,000 views on TikTok at the time of writing. Some viewers have expressed shock at the behaviour of the sun-seekers, while others have found humour in the bizarre incident. Several social media users have also suspected that the men involved are British. 'How no more, it's Benidorm', one social media user wrote. Another commented: 'These lot are an absolute embarrassment'. 'Quite possibly the worst (but best) scrap ever', a third joked. The violent punch-up in Benidorm comes just a month after a British tourist was brutally sucker-punched by a Spanish local after getting caught up in a brawl with bouncers in the Spanish resort. Footage taken by a fellow bar-goer shows the unnamed Brit being slammed onto the floor by another man in Benidorm. According to an eyewitness, the man and his group were asked to leave the unknown bar by another reveller before a bouncer intervened and things got 'heated.' The Brit, who is dressed in white, can be seen being shoved by a group of men, while his friend steps in. As the exchange escalates, video shows the man being brutally punched in the face and falling on the floor, as his leg bends backwards towards his hip. A woman wearing a pink cowboy hat rushes to his aid and crouches over him, as a group of men continue to scuffle with the bouncers. An onlooker said: 'It's always the d***head Brits - it makes you ashamed to be a Brit sometimes. 'We'd been in there for two hours or so - it seemed a nice bar and all of a sudden we heard a bit of a commotion. 'There was a smaller guy who we think was a local and he looked like a bouncer but looked a bit too small to be one. 'He was asking them to leave, and then the larger bouncer came over and things got a bit heated. 'It looks like the smaller guy then knocks him out. 'He was out cold, and his leg looked dislocated.' The condition of the Brit who was floored in the Benidorm bar fight was not known.


Times
15-07-2025
- Times
Two Britons found dead in Portuguese apartment swimming pool
Two British men have been found dead in a swimming pool at a hotel-apartment complex in the Portuguese resort town of Albufeira. The men, aged 27 and 29, were discovered in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Emergency services were called to the scene shortly before 4am, but attempts to resuscitate them were unsuccessful, and their deaths were confirmed at the site. The deaths are not being treated as suspicious. They are believed to have drowned after jumping into the pool following a night out. Initial reports suggest the two men may have entered the pool after consuming alcohol and are not thought to have known how to swim. The pair were reportedly staying in the apartment complex with friends as part of a holiday. The incident occurred in a region popular with British tourists, with young holidaymakers in particular drawn to Albufeira's nightlife. It follows a number of recent fatal incidents involving UK nationals in the Algarve this summer. On June 4, Greg Monks, a 38-year-old from Glasgow, was found dead at the bottom of a steep embankment near Albufeira town centre, one week after being reported missing during a stag party. Earlier in the summer, another British tourist, aged 21, died in the resort after reportedly falling down stairs. The deaths have raised concerns among local authorities and residents about the pressures of mass tourism and the transformation of Albufeira's identity from a family destination to a party hotspot. Discussions have taken place about tighter regulations concerning public drinking and safety around swimming pools in tourist accommodation. The police are investigating the circumstances of the latest fatalities and are awaiting the results of toxicological tests and witness statements from those staying with the victims. The names of the deceased have not yet been released.


Irish Times
27-06-2025
- Irish Times
Off-duty garda who assaulted hotel porter while ‘paralytic drunk' spared conviction
An off-duty garda who has represented Roscommon at senior inter-county football level got 'paralytic drunk' after drinking sambucas during an 'alcohol-fuelled' stag weekend before assaulting a hotel porter in Ennis, Co Clare, a court has heard. At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett commented: 'It is a shame really that but for the isolated incident on a stag night where Caoileann Fitzmaurice drank sambuca he probably wouldn't be here at all.' The garda was spared a conviction, with the judge imposing the Probation Act instead. He will still face internal Garda disciplinary proceedings. Judge Gabbett said: 'Mr Fitzmaurice had four or five drinks and all of a sudden he was paralytic drunk and he had to be brought home. Then he was confronted by this nice man [Olufegun Lawal] who was trying to direct him to the right place when the melee ensued.' READ MORE Judge Gabbett said that Mr Fitzmaurice was on 'an alcohol-fuelled weekend'. In the case, Mr Fitzmaurice (31), who is stationed at Pearse Street Garda Station in Dublin, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Lawal at the Queen's Hotel, Abbey Street, Ennis in Co Clare on January 21st, 2023. Judge Gabbett said that he would not be imposing a conviction on Mr Fitzmaurice for the late-night assault and instead imposed the Probation Act on the man and made a compensation order for €5,000, which was handed over to Mr Lawal. Judge Gabbett said that he was not convicting Mr Fitzmaurice of the offence 'due to the exemplary fashion in which he has engaged with the Probation Services'. He said: 'He has met the case head on, shown remorse, apologised, faced up to it and paid compensation.' Judge Gabbett said: 'He has received significant publicity for this crime, which is very difficult for his family, his club mates and his colleagues.' He said: 'I am very conscious of the notoriety that this case has brought him – unfortunately Mr Google will follow him around for a long time.' Judge Gabbett said that he wouldn't expect to see Mr Fitzmaurice in a court again other than in his role as a State witness. He said that it is never easy for a member of An Garda Síochána to be before the courts. Judge Gabbett said that he was conscious of the internal disciplinary proceedings within An Garda Síochána which, he said, will have to happen because it is an assault. Counsel for Mr Fitzmaurice, Cian Kelly BL, asked that the case be struck out due to the manner in which Mr Fitzmaurice has met the case. Judge Gabbett said that he didn't think it would change the outcome of the disciplinary process if the case was struck out. Mr Kelly said: 'Unfortunately, having dealt with the minutiae of that disciplinary process I am very conscious that minute differences have significant ramifications in that process.' Judge Gabbett said: 'The court has come as much as it can in terms of sanction.' State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey, said: 'From the very outset, the victim wanted an acknowledgement that he had done nothing wrong and the accused was apologetic to him.' Mr Lawal opted not to provide a victim impact statement to the court. On his way out of the courtroom, Mr Fitzmaurice shook hands with Mr Lawal. Mr Kelly previously said that before the Ennis incident Mr Fitzmaurice was a Garda on beat patrol and is currently on Garda office duties Mr Kelly said that Mr Fitzmaurice is heavily involved in GAA and is captain of local senior football team Michael Glaveys in Roscommon.


Irish Times
16-06-2025
- Irish Times
Was it just me who found the slogans on two men's t-shirts so inappropriate?
They were some distance in advance of me in the queue for security at Bristol Airport, so it was only when the two men turned a corner and were thus now facing my direction that I noticed them. It was a Saturday morning in June. The airport was extremely busy. The two men now facing me were clearly friends, travelling together, chatting away as they waited their turn in the security line. They were, at a guess, in their mid to late thirties. They were both wearing what looked like brand-new T-shirts; the lattice of recently unfolded lines still visible. The taller one's T-shirt was dark blue with white lettering. It said: 'Begging For A Pegging.' His friend's T-shirt was black, and said: 'Please Be 18.' The queue shuffled along. The two men reached the machines, and put their bags into the grubby grey trays. Nobody made any comment on the clearly-visible provocative sexual wording on their T-shirts. I watched as they retrieved their bags and walked off into the duty free area, one slapping the other on the back. It was noon. READ MORE As I put my own bag in a tray, I found many questions going through my head. Why were they wearing these T-shirts in the first place? Were they joining up with a stag party somewhere else? What kind of T-shirts might the other people in the party be wearing? Was it just me who found the casually displayed slogans so inappropriate for the public space of an airport terminal? I have zero interest in seeing adults' personal sexual preferences literally spelt out for all to see; like a think bubble over their head. The airport was also full of children, many of them of an age well able to read. I wondered if some parents that morning had had to deal with questions from their children about 'What is pegging?' and 'What does 'please-be-18′ mean?' The two men had vanished from sight by the time I got through security – otherwise, curiosity would have had me going after them to ask them these questions face to face. I was never going to see them again, so had nothing to lose. But they were gone. I am fairly confident, however, that if I had caught up with them and asked them why they were wearing these shirts, they would have said it was a joke, or for a laugh; that it wasn't serious; and also, that it was none of my business what they wore. I wondered did the man wearing the 'Please Be 18' T-shirt think he was to be congratulated for hypothetically checking in on a hypothetical teenager's age, given the age of consent for sex in Britain is 16, and 17 in Ireland. 'I'm not Humbert Humbert', his T-shirt might as well have read. The subtext being: 'I'm not a creepy older man looking to have underage sex with someone decades younger. Yes, the T-shirt says I'm all about looking to have sex with someone young, but nothing illegal for me. I'll even wear the T-shirt to conveniently ask the question for me.' [ The welcome I received from Jennifer Johnston is something I will never forget Opens in new window ] I doubt very much anyone wearing a T-shirt with a racist or homophobic slogan would have moved as easily through security as these two did. Though, maybe I'm mistaken. It's difficult to know what slogans are acceptable or inappropriate to wear in public these days; to identify where the boundaries lie in how we present ourselves between private and public spaces. Whatever about at an airport terminal, I don't believe the wearing of either of these T-shirts would go down unchallenged in a work place. I cannot imagine such shirts being worn at a company conference, to meet a client or, as in my own profession, while interviewing a member of the public. A T-shirt with a slogan is a very individual public billboard, reflecting as it does the interests or values of the person who has chosen to wear it. The first time I became aware of T-shirts gaining media traction for their slogans was in the early 1980s, with British designer Katherine Hamnett's famous 1983 T-shirt that declared 'Choose Life'. A phrase later appropriated by the anti-abortion lobbyists in the US, Hamnett's interpretation was, as she explained, inspired by Buddhism and intended to be an anti-war comment. A political activist, Hamnett went on to design many T-shirts with far more overtly political slogans. Today, anyone with access to the internet can design their own customised T-shirt. You see them at family gatherings, with personalised with names for sporting events, hen parties, or for any social occasion you can think of, be it campaigning or partying. You might even have one yourself. The two T-shirts these two men were wearing at Bristol Airport were not customised. When I looked online later, I discovered that both T-shirts with these particular slogans were being offered for sale on several different websites, including commercial behemoths Amazon and Temu. They come in all sizes and were variously described as 'funny lad T-shirt'; 'novelty present'; 'sarcastic'; 'hilarious'; and 'witty'. I personally did not find the messages on these T-shirts hilarious, or witty, or sarcastic. Does that make me into the automatic trope of someone who can't take a joke, not just by the people who wear them, but the manufacturers who make them? All things considered, it's likely if I had caught up with those two men at the airport, they would have instructed me to lighten up. It's possible, of course, that I'm simply a grumpy old woman. Maybe I'll put that on a t-shirt.


The Independent
05-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Who is Greg Monks? The ‘family man' who went missing in Portugal after stag do
The 38-year-old disappeared in the coastal city of Albufeira, in the southern Algarve region, last month during a stag party. Portuguese police said on Wednesday the body of a 38-year-old man had been found in the search for a missing Scottish tourist. The Policia Judiciaria said the body was located in the Cerro de Aguia area. Authorities said a post-mortem examination will take place in due course. Who is Greg Monks and how did he disappear? Greg Monks lived in Glasgow. He worked as a mechanic for Doncaster-based Cementation Skanska, according to The Sun. He was in Portugal for a five-day stag-do with his friends. Mr Monks told his friends he was heading back to his holiday apartment after drinking on a night out, according to The Sun. Police said the 38-year-old's disappearance was reported to the Guarda Nacional Republicana on May 28 at around 8pm by a man who was on holiday with him. His family and girlfriend flew out to assist in the search. A body was discovered during the search for Mr Monks at the bottom of a ravine 'a long way from the spot where he was last seen' on Wednesday, according to Portuguese daily newspaper Correi da Manha. How have his family reacted? After police discovered the body of a 38-year-old man, Mr Monk's sister, Jillian, posted a tribute on social media. 'Didn't think it would end like this,' she wrote. 'We are absolutely devastated! Greg was an amazing boy who everyone thought so highly of, Was friends with everyone and always made us laugh! We will miss him everyday! 'I just want to thank absolutely everyone for everything they done from sharing their posts to out looking, phoning everywhere to get CCTV. Special thanks to Sharon Cooke Stacy McGhee Georgie Gould and Karen Winter for helping run the page and all you done for my brother. & to Yolanda Morgana Dan Birch Leonard Faria and Michael Hosey for doing all you could searching sorry if I have missed anyone, heads not 100% but everyone has been truly amazing. The support we have received from everyone has been out of this world. 'If love coulda saved you, you would live forever! Miss you forever brother.'