A WEYMOUTH builder was flying home from Spain today following a nightmare month in which he was robbed twice, stabbed, arrested and forced to sleep rough on the streets.

David Batchelor, 40, from Broadwey, had travelled to the Costa Blanca on his own for a holiday but when he failed to get a flight home as planned worried relatives went to Spain to look for him.

After distributing dozens of posters around hospitals and police stations and appealing for help through an English language newspaper, Mr Batchelor's younger brother Dean, 33, sister Denise Crippes, 41, and uncle Bill Batchelor, 60, were contacted by police who found him injured and confused.

He was wandering without any of his belongings in a village near Murcia.

As Mr Batchelor was recovering in a hospital yesterday arrangements were hastily being made with the British Consulate to get him home.

Dean Batchelor said: "It has been a total nightmare for him.

"You hear about things like this happening but never think it will happen to you.

"Thankfully the British Consulate have been really supportive and helped us through all the red tape. The doctors said that if David had spent another day on the road he could have died.

"He has been cut badly and suffered heat-stroke and dehydration."

Mr Batchelor went to Spain in early August and stayed with a friend in Murcia.

Towards the end of his trip his family received a call to say he had been mugged on a train.

They lost contact and were prompted to go and look for him when he failed to come home on August 20.

Dean Batchelor said: "I understand that David was robbed again near Alicante and attacked by a gang who had knives. They took everything including his passport. He went to hospital but ended up being arrested over a confusion. He spent time in a cell and was released without charge.

"He doesn't remember too much due to concussion but it appears that he wandered around for a few days sleeping rough and drinking water at garages. He ended up in a village called San Tomera where local police recognised him from the posters we had put out, which was a stroke of luck.

"He's not too bad now and is looking forward to coming home. We will admit him to Dorset County Hospital when we return.

"We're just so glad to have found him. He's been through quite an ordeal."