Tracked down: The war crimes suspect living in Tiverton

[Judi Lynn]

Tracked down: The war crimes suspect living in Tiverton
Peruvian has been questioned over a decade of atrocities. Tom Peck hears him protest his innocence
Saturday, 19 March 2011



Students carries coffins containing remains of people
killed in a 1984 massacre

The high street in Tiverton, Devon, is just like that of any other small market town – with a tea shop, a barber's, an Indian restaurant and a second-hand bookseller – except that at the local Italian, the man tending the bar and waiting tables is on bail for alleged torture and crimes against humanity.

Il Gatto Nero was closed for business for two days this week, prompting the landlord to fear that his tenant Rodrigo Grande, a 46-year-old Peruvian, had "done a runner". In fact, Mr Grande was 15 miles away at Exeter police station, being questioned about his alleged role in the torture and murder of hundreds of Peruvian civilians in the 1980s and early 1990s, when government-backed death squads moved to quash the Maoist insurgent movement known as the Shining Path.

While Mr Grande was being questioned, Metropolitan Police officers searched both his restaurant and his rented home nearby, removing mobile phones and computer equipment. He is now on bail and expected to present himself to police in London in July.

Mr Grande, who is 6ft tall and was dressed in jeans and a cardigan when located by The Independent, protested his innocence yesterday. "They wanted to speak to me about when I worked as a police officer in Peru. I have done nothing. I have done nothing," he said, refusing to say more about the matter.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tracked-down-the-war-crimes-suspect-living-in-tiverton-2246469.html