Keith Byrne has been convicted of murdering his girlfriend Kirsty Ward at their Spanish holiday hotel in 2023.
As reported by RTE, after three days of deliberations, jurors found Byrne guilty of strangling the 36-year-old mother-of-one to death with a hair straightener power cord after she told him she was leaving him. Byrne is now facing three decades in prison.
Byrne Claimed Ward Died of Suicide, Accused Her of Being an Alcohol and Cocaine Addict
The 34-year-old Irish man had claimed during his trial in the eastern Spanish city of Tarragona that Ward had died by suicide at their four-star Magnolia Hotel in the popular Costa Daurada resort town of Salou.
He described himself as a "respectful and intelligent" father-of-three who would never commit an act of domestic violence. He demonised Ms Ward as someone who could be "four people in one day" especially after bingeing on alcohol and cocaine which he claimed made their romance "toxic."
Forensic Evidence Indicated Ward was Strangled from Behind
Public prosecutor Javier Goimil, a domestic violence specialist, dismissed Byrne's court claim that Ward took her own life during his closing speech to the jury last Wednesday on the final day of the murder trial.
He claimed the former soldier decided, "you're mine or you're nobody's" and strangled his girlfriend to death because she wanted out of their relationship. He said the forensic evidence pointed to Ward having been strangled from behind between 8pm and 10pm on 2 July 2023 after "incapacitating herself" with alcohol and cocaine.
Goimil told the court: "Byrne has adapted his version of events of what happened in that timeframe nearly two years on in accordance with the evidence he's learnt there is against him."
"He's saying Kirsty tied a cable round her neck and attached it to the door knob but in the state she was in it would have been impossible for her to do that and there's nothing showing there was a knot in the cable."
"What's occurred here is a violent and painful death, a strangulation from behind where someone is pulling from the front to the back. This was not a suicide."
Ward and Byrne's Relationship was 'Very Toxic'
Goimil also noted that Ward's relationship with Byrne was "very toxic" and that he couldn't come to terms with the fact that "she decided to end it" during their Spanish holiday.
"That was why he killed her the way he did," he added. He also said the amount of alcohol Ms Ward had drunk before being killed would have impacted significantly on her ability to defend herself.
Jurors started deliberating on Monday after the 1 May Bank Holiday. Byrne's defence lawyer Jordi Cabre had been seeking his client's acquittal before the jury verdict and afterwards asked the judge to hand down the "minimum sentence".
