When will Quintas return to the UK? (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

When will Quintas return to the UK?

HAYLEY TRAGEDY: IT is impossible to tell how long it will be before the chief suspect in the murder that has shocked the country will be back in the UK.

Spanish police arrested 23-year-old former Bowyers worker Hugo Quintas, of Seymour Court in the Basque region on Tuesday.

An inquest into the death of Hayley Richards, opened on Wednesday, heard her body cannot be released to her family because of legal procedures in Spain.

Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Capstick told Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Masters that although a European arrest warrant had been issued, Quintas could choose to challenge it. If that was the case legal proceedings would ensue that could result in a second post mortem examination being requested.

DCI Capstick said: "If the gentleman volunteers to surrender under a European arrest warrant it could be a matter of days before we are in a position to return him to the United Kingdom."

Police will not know whether Quintas intends to surrender to the warrant until a court hearing in Spain due to be held at the central court in Madrid on Friday.

If he does not fight the warrant he could be back in the UK within a few days but otherwise it could take up to 30 days to extradite him.