Detained tourist pleads to rejoin critically ill wife

A man being held in prison in Malta after a motoring accident while his wife lies critically ill in a Welsh hospital pleaded yesterday to be allowed to return home.

The Foreign Office said Gareth Bishop's dangerous driving case would be heard in a court on the island on Monday.

But Mr Bishop, whose wife Sybille was critically injured in the car crash which lef to his arrest, fears this may be too late.

"My wife is seriously ill, very seriously ill and I'm just stuck out here for a court case," he said.

Mrs Bishop, 44, booked the Mediterranean resort holiday as a surprise 50th birthday present for her husband. But she suffered severe head injuries in June when she was thrown from a hired vehicle he was driving.

Mr Bishop, a builder from Grangetown, Cardiff, was charged with careless driving and detained in Malta while his wife was flown back to Britain for emergency medical treatment.

She is now in a coma at the Royal Gwent Hospital at Newport. Doctors have put her on a life support machine and fear she may have only days to live.

Mr John Gough, a consultant at the hospital, said yesterday: "We will continue to support her organs for as long as possible, but that might only be days."

Her husband's court hearing has been brought forward because of her condition.

But Mr Bishop told Sky News: "I'm desperate to get home to my wife. I would have liked to have come home on the air ambulance and I could have come back for this."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have been keeping in touch and asking for the case to be brought forward. It will now be heard on Monday. We certainly hope he can return after Monday to be at his wife's bedside but he is subject to the Maltese judicial process."