Tony and Linda O'Malley were missing for six months

Luis Corno, who runs a law practice in the Spanish city of Alicante, said no priority would be given to the men because of the severity of the case.

"In my experience they will have to wait at least six months, if not longer," he said.

The couple from Llangollen in north Wales had been the subject of a missing persons inquiry for six months before they were discovered.

Funeral

Meanwhile, Anthony's brother Bernard O'Malley has revealed there is still no positive identification of the couple's bodies.

The family has been told it could take another two weeks to formally identify the pair.

As a result, they have been unable to make any funeral arrangements.

The two South American accused men, charged with kidnapping and murder, will eventually face a trial by jury.

Spain introduced the system in the 1990s for serious crimes.

Their bodies were found in the villa's cellar

Linda O'Malley, 55, and her husband, who was 42, disappeared in September while on a two-week holiday in the Costa Blanca looking for a retirement home.

Six months later their bodies were found last week buried in the cellar of a house in Alcoy, a town 12 miles inland from the coastal resort of Benidorm.

A post mortem examination revealed Mrs O'Malley had been badly beaten before being strangled.

Mr O'Malley's body was found with a plastic bag over the head.