Magaluf, Spain - You will probably never have heard of Danny Daly. So who he is? Or rather, what does he do? The clue is in the branded T-shirt he is wearing on Facebook with such slogans as ‘Snog A Passer-by’, ‘Raunchy Games’ and ‘Have A Lapdance’ underneath two words, in big capitals: Carnage Magaluf.
Danny Daly and his brother John are the men behind the controversial company; the two Mr Bigs who set up the operation two years ago, which has now succeeded in achieving the near-impossible feat of dragging the reputation of the notorious resort down even further.
The culture of sexual and moral anarchy created by the Daly brothers, and others down the years, culminated in a teenage girl from the UK being filmed performing a sex act in public on 24 men in succession after attending a Carnage event last month — apparently in return for a free drink.
The atmosphere inside the club, where she was goaded and encouraged by the baying audience, had parallels with that infamous scene from the film The Accused in the Eighties, where Jodie Foster’s character is gang raped in a bar.
Although legally the 18-year-old from Northern Ireland may not have been raped, is there anyone who doesn’t believe that, even though she was intoxicated and woefully misguided, she was in some way a victim?
Yet only a few days ago, in the wake of continuing public revulsion over what happened, a message from Carnage’s management (i.e. the Dalys) appeared on the company’s Twitter feed, saying: “We are not responsible for the girl’s actions.”
So there’s not a scintilla of sympathy or compassion, then, for either the girl or her family. Certainly no apology. Nothing.
The bottom line, of course, whatever the collateral damage of Carnage’s money-spinning activities, is profit.
This week, the entire front page of the Majorca Daily Bulletin, the Balearic island’s only English-language newspaper, was devoted to an editorial attacking the “greed and unscrupulousness of a few businesses, if you can call them that”.
The “businesses” were not named. There was no need — everyone knew the main culprit was Carnage Magaluf.
Yet even in this party capital, almost no one knows that the Dalys are behind the operation. That’s just the way the Dalys like it. They never give interviews. The one and only picture of Danny Daly on Facebook — where he is wearing a branded Carnage T-shirt — has now been taken down.
The brothers, both married with young children, were originally from the East End of London, where their mother ran a hairdressing salon.
They have been on Majorca for around 20 years and live in Santa Ponsa, a ten-minute drive from Magaluf. Winters are spent in Barbados.
Carnage Magaluf — which is not linked to Carnage UK, the company behind notorious student party nights in Britain — was set up two years ago and runs boat parties, “celebrity” pool parties (featuring reality TV stars from such shows as The Only Way Is Essex) and, of course, bar crawls, which take place three times a week along Punta Ballena, the main strip through Magaluf.
On average, there are 200 British youngsters on these bar crawls, including many who have just finished their A-levels. They pay around £25 (about R450) a head to join the bar crawl — so 200 times £25 means Carnage takes £5 000 a night, and £15 000 a week.
And Carnage is only part of the Daly family empire. They also have at least two bars: EastEnders and Magaluf Rocks. Needless to say, both are on the Carnage bar crawl itinerary.
There’s also a lap-dancing club called Pure, where Danny Daly was spotted emerging on Friday night, plus two of Magaluf’s biggest hotels, the TRH Torrenova and Palmanova, which means the Dalys have more than 3 000 guests a week.
By any reckoning, the Daly brothers are among the most powerful figures in Magaluf.
They say you can judge a person by the company they keep. Danny and John Daly’s right-hand man is Alan Collinson, 28. He is paid well enough to afford to rent a luxury villa, with a swimming pool, on the outskirts of Magaluf.
A tattooed kickboxer from Hartlepool, Collinson was investigated by Spanish police for allegedly attacking four members of a stag do — leaving two with broken jaws — on a Carnage crawl in May. The company says Collinson stepped in to defend a girl and that he did nothing wrong.
It was Collinson who organised the bar crawl where they clapped and cheered as the British teenager performed sex acts on 24 men. Afterwards, he wrote on Facebook: “Don’t know what all the fuss is about, it’s an average night on a Carnage bar crawl.” Since then, two more disturbing videos of Carnage events have surfaced on the internet. One shows a young brunette performing sex acts on male revellers in a bar during a Carnage party. One man is wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: “What happens in Majorca stays in Majorca.”
The other shows a girl with her underwear around her ankles appearing to have sex with two men as the DJ shouts: “This is Carnage and this is what we do.” When the girls stops, the DJ announces: “She’s got stage fright.”
Around 12 000 youngsters from all over Britain will visit Magaluf this summer. Many will be experiencing their first taste of independence after finishing their exams.
The season has only just started, but already staff at one of the four British medical centres in Magaluf are regularly being asked for the morning-after pill. Someone working at the surgery revealed they have also treated numerous victims of date-rape drugs.
The Mail was told about an incident near the Magaluf Rocks bar a few days ago where a teenage girl — about 16 or 17 — collapsed. Her friends believe her drink was spiked. “She couldn’t speak, see or hear,” said a barmaid, who works across the road. “Her friends called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital.”
On Friday night, the Punta Ballena strip — full of neon-lit bars, clubs, lap-dancing joints (and brothels), running parallel to the beach — was a cacophony of thumping never-ending music and screaming drunken adolescents.
Among the latest arrivals to Magaluf were beautician Amy Tolley, 19, and four friends. They were staying at the Daly brothers-run Torrenova hotel and signed up for a Carnage bar crawl, which meant four hours of non-stop drinking — at the very least.
Perversely, they revealed how a male Carnage rep had showed them an article about the “girl and the 24 men” before they set off. “I asked him why he had shown us the article and he said he would explain later,’”Amy said.
Other girls were shown the actual footage. “I’ve got the whole video,” a young woman employed by Carnage boasted to another group of girls.
“This girl booked the crawl again the next night,” the rep told them. “She really enjoyed it.”
During the night, Amy had her top ripped off by a group of boys. “I shouted at them to stop but they wouldn’t listen,” she said. “I was really upset about it.”
Luckily, there were T-shirts on offer so she could cover up. Among those handed out to boys were ones with the words, “Don’t worry, I’ll pull out,” emblazoned on them.
How many youngsters took part ? One hundred? Two hundred? It was difficult to say. The only thing you could say for sure is that all of them were British.
Almost all the girls (average age 18 or 19) were wearing mini-skirts or denim shorts cut so short most of their bottoms were on show. Many were in tight tops with no bras. Several were wandering around in just their underwear.
This is not a criticism of the girls themselves, just a reflection of the kind of place Magaluf is: a modern “Sodom and Gomorrah” local Spaniards call it.
Late in the evening, four girls and boys were pulled on stage for a ‘Dirty Pint’ game, where a pint of mixed fluids must be moved from one glass to another through a line of people — by kissing each other. The eventual loser had to drink the remains as the host joked: “I hope you don’t get herpes.”
One of the stops en route was Magaluf Rocks — one of the bars run by the Dalys. It’s a dive, even by the standards of Punta Ballena. On Friday, customers were in danger of aquaplaning on spilt lager. But no one cared. Many stayed on to buy extra drinks after the bar crawl was finished. More drinks equals more profits for the Dalys.
Outside, a young woman seized the opportunity to take away a memento of her time in Magaluf by taking a ‘selfie’ with a man who had collapsed in the gutter.
A long time ago, locals signed a Faustian pact with the British: they would clear up the broken glass, the vomit and used condoms in return for their money.
Now the profits of Magaluf are ending up in the pockets of the Daly brothers, much to the disgust of tourism chiefs and hoteliers who have been trying to improve the resort’s downmarket image.
“We’re not trying to turn away from mass tourism,” said Alvaro Gijon, deputy mayor of Palma, the capital city of Majorca. “But people vomiting in the streets and worse is just not on.”
Officials want to develop the area as a base for hikers and cyclists (Bradley Wiggins spends several months of the year training in Majorca). There are plans, too, for new luxury hotels.
“We demand that the greed and unscrupulousness of a few businesses, if you can call them that, do not ruin Majorca’s reputation, especially with a market as important as the British market, nor ruin the historic opportunity that Magaluf has for recovery after years of shame,” declared that Majorca Daily Bulletin front page on Saturday.
“It is time to shout from the rooftops that we don’t want this tourism. It’s not worth it.”
When contacted by the Mail on his mobile phone, Danny Daly said he would consider a request for an interview, but never called back.
The council has now passed new laws to curb organised bar crawls by restricting the number of those taking part to 50 and fining bar owners if the limit is exceeded.
Even so, one suspects the Daly brothers won’t be losing much sleep. - Daily Mail