'My life in Tenerife turned into a nightmare. Now I'm suing Spain'

It is a story which sounds like a script for an exotic, violent, albeit slightly over the top crime drama. The ingredients are an ex-rock star, an unsolved murder with the victim found at the bottom of a well; alleged wrongful imprisonment and an innocent man's three-decade fight for justice.

But Gary Owens, a guitarist from Bramhall, Stockport, who tasted fame with his band, has lived it. His ordeal began in the Canary Islands when armed police surrounded his partner Jayne's Renault car. He was twice arrested and held in jail on remand in 1991 and 2008 on suspicion of playing a part in the death of a wealthy Norwegian club owner on the Costa del Sol.

He says he endured a spell in a 'medieval' jail in Marbella locked up with heroin addicts before managing to break out. He spent a total of almost three years in prison but has never been charged with any offence.

The M.E.N. reported in 2017 that he said he had finally been told there is no case against him. Now, after an ill-fated and torturous legal action through a multitude of Spanish courts, his lawyer is to submit a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg next month, seeking £4.6m in compensation from the Spanish government.

The guitarist’s band - A II Z - made the UK heavy metal charts in 1980 and played with supergroups like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. It would be his pursuit of stardom which ultimately lead to his life spiralling into a nightmare that began playing in pubs, schools, and clubs in Stockport and took off with a two-album record deal with Polydor.

The short-lived renaissance of heavy rock in Britain had waned by the time Gary was living in Spain in 1991. But his impressive career, playing later for the band Tytan and then