A court in Manresa has sentenced a man to 26 years and 2 days in prison after he admitted killing his pregnant partner. The plea agreement closed a case marked by extreme domestic violence and the deaths of both the woman and her unborn child.
The man had been in pre-trial detention since May 2023. He accepted charges including homicide and aggravated abortion, and also admitted to gender-based violence, avoiding a public jury trial. The agreement was reached with the victim’s family and the Generalitat, with the prosecution also joining after initially seeking a 32-year sentence. He will serve more than 26 years and must complete 63 days of community service while in prison. Spain’s Ministry of the Interior reported that over 50 women were killed in gender-based violence incidents across Spain in 2023, underscoring the continuing scale of the issue.
Prosecutors said the abuse began months before the killing. In October 2022, the man locked his partner in a room for two days and beat her repeatedly. The violence escalated in April 2023. On the night of May 5 to 6, he assaulted her in their apartment and suffocated her. Prosecutors said he intended to kill both the woman and the fetus.
The relationship began in late 2022 and was marked by the man’s obsessive control and jealousy. He monitored her communications, particularly with her former partner, and forbade her from spending Christmas with her family. Prosecutors described a pattern of contempt and domination rooted in gender-based animosity.
As part of the sentence, the court ordered the man to pay €175,000 in compensation to the victim’s mother and the heirs of her late father. He is also barred from contacting or approaching the victim’s mother for 25 years after his release. The legal process concluded in a single session, reflecting the seriousness of the crimes and the parties’ decision to avoid the trauma of a public trial. Spain introduced its gender violence law in 2004, establishing specialized courts and tougher penalties for offenders. Yet official Spanish government data recorded over 180,000 complaints of gender-based violence in 2022. The use of plea agreements in severe cases remains controversial, as courts weigh swift justice against the rights of victims’ families. The Manresa verdict shows courts imposing long sentences for domestic homicide, while also exposing the limits of legal remedies in preventing such tragedies. The facts established in court are a reminder that legal consequences alone cannot undo the harm caused by violence within intimate relationships.
