'EVIL' KILLER SNARED AFTER GOING ON RUN

Hunter grabbed by Spanish police and will now serve his jail time for murder

- By GERARD COUZENS & WESLEY HOLMES

A CONVICTED killer who stabbed a 22-year-old Croxteth man to death at an Algarve luxury apartment complex has been arrested on Spain's Costa Blanca after going on the run.

William Hunter, 34, was held in Alicante and is now set to be extradited to Portugal to serve a 16-year prison sentence for the murder of his roommate, Elliot Mulligan.

Elliot was murdered in the grounds of the luxury apartment complex where he was staying in Albufeira, Portugal, on April 25 2022.

He was stabbed multiple times in the chest, back, arms and hands by Hunter, who was jailed in May 2023.

In April last year, Elliot's mum Gina told the ECHO she feared Hunter would be released, as he had appealed the verdict and was being held on preventative detention.

This is a two-year holding period under Portuguese law, which expired on April 26 2024.

If the court was unable to reach a decision before this date, Hunter would be allowed to walk free, and would only be recalled to prison once a decision had been made.

She said at the time: "We know that Hunter will run and flee Portugal ... he will be out and, with nothing to lose, free to commit more potentially hideous crimes."

Hunter, who is understood to be from Northern Ireland but formerly of West Derby, is expected to face charges over other crimes, including an armed robbery at a jeweller's in the northern Portuguese city of Esposende at the start of 2025.