​Dublin man allegedly murdered girlfriend in Spain after she ended relationship, court hears

LAST UPDATE | 30 Apr

A SPANISH PROSECUTOR has argued a claim by alleged killer of Irish mum-of-one Kirsty Ward that she died by suicide is false.

Prosecutor Javier Goimil said the alleged killer Keith Byrne decided Kirsty Ward was ‘his or nobody’s’ and strangled his girlfriend to death when she told him she was ending their eight-month relationship.

He accused the 34-year-old former soldier from Duleek, Co Meath, of concocting a story that Kirsty Ward died by suicide after being told he could spend most of the next three decades behind bars.

The domestic violence specialist, prosecuting on behalf of the Spanish state, reiterated his demand Byrne should face 21 years in jail if convicted of killing his partner at the four-star Magnolia Hotel in the popular Costa Dorada resort of Salou.

Estela Cortes, a lawyer acting for Kirsty Ward’s family, confirmed she still wanted the alleged killer jailed for 30 years on conviction after hearing all the evidence against him in open court at the week-long trial in the nearby city of Tarragona.

As he testified in open court for the first time yesterday, Byrne tried to describe Kirsty as a “monster” whose cocaine and alcohol abuse made her become “four people in a day”.

He claimed he had found the 36-year-old Dubliner in a condition that suggested she had died by suicide.

Goimil said in his closing speech to the nine-strong jury forensic evidence showed Kirsty had been strangled from behind between 8pm and 10pm on 2 July 2023 after “incapacitating herself” with alcohol and cocaine

He 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 said that Byrne’s account of Kirsty’s actions would have been “impossible” for her to have done.

“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,” he said.

He said that Kirsty had bought a plane ticket back to Dublin for 4 July.

“Kirsty’s relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional.

“She decided to end it during the week they stayed at the hotel in Salou and her partner couldn’t accept that decision.

“His mindset at that moment was: ‘You’re mine or you’re nobody’s. You, woman, are no-one to say you’re going to detach yourself from me the man and have your own independent life.’ That was why he killed her the way he did.”

Arguing the amount of alcohol Kirsty had drunk before she was killed would have impacted significantly on her ability to defend herself, Goimil said: “She might have wanted to move her arm and she wouldn’t have been able to do so.

“Kirsty might have wanted to free the cable Byrne was pulling tight around her neck and couldn’t.

“She might have wanted to run out of that hotel room she was trapped in and wouldn’t have been able to.”

Kirsty’s mum Jackie Ward described Byrne as someone she “didn’t like” and “didn’t trust” on day one of the trial last Wednesday and said she had found out after her daughter’s death she had planned to leave him during their “make or break” holiday.

She was asked as she gave evidence whether she thought her daughter, whose son Evan was 14 when she died, could have died by suicide, but replied angrily: “She did everything for her son. She would never ever leave him. She would never do that to him.”

Jurors are due to start deliberating their verdict at the start of next week after the May Bank Holiday. Byrne’s defence lawyer Jordi Cabre is seeking his client’s acquittal.

Jackie Ward described her daughter as a “fantastic friend” to her parents and “an absolutely adored daughter”.