Peer arrested after Spanish customs fracas
A Conservative peer and his wife appeared in court in Spain yesterday to face charges relating to an alleged scrap with police on the border with Gibraltar.
Lord Glentoran, Tory shadow minister for Northern Ireland, was “briefly detained” on the Spanish side of the border on Tuesday evening, the British embassy in Madrid confirmed.
The 70-year-old, who first entered the Lords in 1995, was reported to have appeared before a court in the border town of La Linea on Wednesday, where he faced allegations of aggression against three members of Spain’s civil guard.
It has been claimed officers required hospital treatment after the altercation broke out as Lord Glentoran, a former member of the Grenadier Guards, and wife Margaret filed through customs.
Spain’s civil guard was called after checks on alcohol and cigarettes in the couple’s luggage led to frayed tempers, but the act made the matter worse, officials said.
So much so that the peer – whose full name is Thomas Robin Valerian Dixon – and his wife were arrested. They have since been released on bail.
A police spokesman said the pair insulted officials and spat on them. They were arrested on suspicion of “serious disobedience and resisting authority”.
Lord Glentoran, who was also shadow minister for environment, food and rural affairs from 2001 to 2003, won an Olympic gold medal in the bobsleigh event in the winter Olympics in 1965.
