TWO Bolton men are being held by Spanish police following the death of a third Bolton man on the holiday island of Tenerife.

Michael Hulse - who was known to his family and friends as Joe - died in the Canary Islands' main hospital in Santa Cruz on April 29.

He had been taken there unconscious with severe injuries after being attacked a month earlier as he completed the first week of a two week holiday on Tenerife.

The pair being held are James Brandwood and Richard Paul Fletcher. Both are said to be from Bolton but addresses and ages have not been released.

They are under arrest pending a trial, but they are not in jail. Their passports are being held by Tenerife police and they have been refused permission by a judge to leave the island. Joe, who was aged 38 and a single man, lived with his father, retired Bolton policeman Philip Hulse in Solent Drive, Darcy Lever.

His parents were separated and the rest of his family - his mother Irene and two brothers Nigel, 36, and Mark, 34 - live in Georgina Street, Daubhill. Joe was thought to be making a steady recovery in hospital and had been able to speak to his mother on one of two visits she made to the island to be at his bedside.

She returned home, confident he would soon be back in Bolton.

Mrs Hulse said it was not known why her son had been attacked. The two men being held had gone on holiday on their own to the island.

She said : "Michael had had six brain scans and the doctors said that even if he recovered he would have permanent brain damage."

But the family received the heartbreak news by phone that he had suffered a relapse and died. Regulars and staff at pubs in the Daubhill area where Joe was a popular figure are raising money to help the family with the enormous costs of flying Joe's body home when post mortem examinations have been completed. Some have had special T-shirts printed with the words "Joe's Appeal".

Joe's brother Nigel said: "My brother wasn't insured and it has already cost my mother a lot of money to go out there twice.

"We want to bring him home to Bolton for burial but that may be too expensive and he may have to be cremated in Tenerife."

"The police in Tenerife have been brilliant, particularly the police chief.

"It has still not sunk in that our brother is dead. I keep thinking he's still on holiday.

"He was a very peaceful person. He supported Greenpeace and loved planting things and seeing them grow - that's the kind of person he was. He loved going to the Glastonbury festival every year." Joe was an upholsterer and had worked for several firms in the Bolton area, but he had recently been laid off because of a slump in the trade.

He attended Church Road junior school and then Smithills High School.

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