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Date Published: 07/02/2023

ARCHIVED - Spanish court upholds 20-year prison sentence of British man who murdered his wife on the Costa del Sol

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UK national Geoffrey Elton, 57, stabbed his wife to death at their Malaga home in 2019

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Spanish court upholds 20-year prison sentence of British man who murdered his wife on the Costa del Sol

The Supreme Court in Spain has this week upheld the 20-year prison sentence handed down to Worksop, Notts native Geoffrey Elton, who was convicted of brutally murdering his wife Gloria at their Estepona home in Malaga in November 2019. At the time, Elton’s lawyers banked on an impaired mental health defence, claiming that their client didn’t remember anything about the slaying.

The same defence was used in his latest appeal, and rejected, by the Spanish courts on Tuesday February 7.

At his trial four years ago, the Costa del Sol Court heard how the wealthy computer programmer locked his teenage son out of the couple’s Malaga mansion before going on a terrifying rampage. The 57-year-old repeatedly stabbed his Spanish wife after a failed attempt to suffocate and strangle the 58-year-old woman to death.

After being convicted by a unanimous jury, Elton received the most lenient sentence for the murder under Spanish law: 20 years.

Following a trial that lasted just four days, the jurors agreed that the suspect’s alleged mental health problems were "made up" after hearing that he killed his wife when she asked for a divorce. Elton reportedly triple locked the front door to prevent her escape during the attack, disposed of their mobiles so she couldn’t call for help and cut light and power to the property at the main fuse box.

During the appeal this week, the Supreme Court drew attention to the fact that the convicted man slit his own wrists shortly before police arrived at the crime scene, a clear sign, they believe, that he understood the gravity of what he had done.

Furthermore, a thorough psychiatric report explored "a possible mental pathology that he could have had, without finding evidence to verify a mental illness that altered the patient's mental capacity, insisting that he knew what he had done and that he had no alterations of any kind", so that "at the time of committing the acts he did not present a disorder".

As well as upholding his original 20-year prison sentence, the court has ordered that Elton pay compensation of 330,000 euros to the children and relatives of his late wife.

Image: Freepik

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