Robert Graham may have provided a fake alibi for one of two murders

Robert Graham, 39, was accused of providing a fake alibi for suspect Tony King, but freed reportedly because a statute of limitations had run out.

King - formerly known as Tony Bromwich - is accused of killing Sonia Carabantes, 17, in August, and Rocio Wanninkhof, 19, in 1999.

Mr Graham was accused in connection with Rocio's murder, but not Sonia's.

Sonia's murder has dominated the Spanish media since she disappeared on 14 August while returning home from a fiesta on the Costa del Sol.

Her body was found five days later strangled, beaten and stripped but there was no evidence of sexual assault.

Investigating officers said DNA samples taken from King's home matched DNA recovered in the two cases.

King was arrested after his girlfriend told police he had returned home on the morning Sonia disappeared with bloody clothes and a scratched face.

Missed message

Scotland Yard on Wednesday confirmed that King had changed his name from Tony Bromwich, the man known as the Holloway Strangler.

He served half of his 10-year jail sentence imposed in 1986 for a series of sex attacks on women in north London.

Tony King was formerly known as 'Holloway Strangler' Tony Bromwich

The Spanish interior minister acknowledged that Interpol had warned the authorities about King in 1998.

The warning was "about certain records in Britain and a warning about the activities that this individual was involved in," Angel Acebes told reporters.

But he said the message from British police, passed on through Interpol, was one of thousands Spain received each year. It was not clear precisely what the warning said.

King, a barman in Alhaurin el Grande, has also admitted to at least three other sex crimes in southern Spain in recent years.

He is in jail where he has been placed in an isolation cell to protect him from other inmates, police said.

Mr Graham was arrested at the nearby resort of Nerja, east of Malaga, on Saturday.

Spanish news agencies said Mr Graham denied the allegations against him.