An arrest warrant has reportedly been issued for a British soldier who was suspected of a glass attack on a comrade in Magaluf.
Sydney Cole was held following the 2019 incident which ended with Lance Corporal Sarah Garrity ending up in intensive care after losing four pints of blood and needing 14 stitches.
Her life was only saved because a quick-thinking rugby player stemmed the flow of blood gushing from her neck.
Today, it has been reported that a court in the island capital Palma made her a wanted woman.
They reportedly issued an international arrest warrant for the Hertfordshire-born 22-year-old after failed attempts to inform her they wanted to question her again under oath.
Cole’s indictment over the attack was said to be “just a question of time” 16 months ago when it emerged she had been recommended for trial on a charge of attempted homicide.
The decision was announced by an investigating judge despite Irvine, Ayshire-born Sarah, 25, who was serving in the Royal Logistics Corps when she was critically injured, telling Spanish authorities she didn’t want to press charges after she left hospital.
Judicial sources told island paper Ultima Hora the Palma judge who issued the warrant decided to take action after she changed address without notifying the court in breach of bail conditions.
Spanish court officials are thought to have been unable to locate key witnesses said to have told the police they saw Cole throw a glass directly at Sarah’s face after the pair rowed at Banana’s Nightclub following an all-day drinking session.
She insisted after her arrest her holiday pal was hurt in an accident when she threw the glass on the floor during a fight with her and shards from it hit Sarah in the neck.
The pair were sharing a hotel room with another squaddie friend called Deborah Ferguson.
Cole, who told police she and the injured woman fought after Sarah tried to intervene in a problem she was having with Ferguson, was remanded in custody for two days before her lawyer got her released from prison.
Mr Ordinas, in his last comments on the case in November 2020 before he handed over the files to a colleague, said state prosecutors had yet to indict Cole.
But well-placed legal sources in Majorca claimed at the time that it was their opinion a trial would take place and the case had simply been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
One said: “Before state prosecutors indict her Cole has to be questioned again under oath.
“The problem has been that the coronavirus pandemic kicked in and it has to be done via videoconference and it’s been suspended on more than one occasion.
“No date has yet been set for the court quiz. It could be another month or two months away. But it will happen and it’s a simple bureaucratic formality that needs to precede the issuing of the indictment.”
A relative of Sarah told the Sunday People at the start of November 2020 Cole had yet to apologise and the Army had let her stay on the same base for 11 months afterwards.
A source told the paper: “Sarah told the police not to charge Cole because she didn’t want to see a young girl banged up in a jail abroad.
“She expected her to be full of remorse but didn’t even get an apology.”
The source also claimed Army bosses told Sarah to “get on with it” when she asked them to consider moving Cole after she got back to work three months later and found her still on Fort George barracks base.
A family member of Sarah’s said: “We don’t feel the Army has looked after our girl.”
An Army spokesman told the Sunday People at the time: “An investigation is ongoing following an incident with a British soldier in Spain last year.
“We take our duty of care to personnel very seriously. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
State prosecutors in Majorca have always declined to make any official comment on the case, as is normal in Spain where only trials are held in public and the judicial probe that precedes the open court hearing is carried out behind closed doors.
