COSTA DEL SOL NEWS: Pensioner killed 77-year-old flatmate by battering him 52 times with a hammer in Torremolinos

Trial started

A MAN beat his disabled 77-year-old former flatmate 52 times with a hammer then left  him to die on the floor is on trial for murder. 
A week went by after the fatal attack before he showed up at Torremolinos National Police Station on Spain’s Costa del Sol where he told officers his conscience did not allow him to sleep because of “the torment” that he suffered having killed a person. 

The victim, had been his flatmate until just a few days previously. Police found the body lying in a foetal position with horrendous injuries. 

Now the 70-year-old defendant should be jailed for 23 years, says the Public Prosecutor, while the private prosecution of the family is calling for an indefinite sentence. 

The event took place last February 25 in the house where they had lived together. The prosecution statement says that at around 4 pm there was an argument between the victim and the accused during which the man took a hammer and, with the intention of killing him, beat his flatmate on more than 52 occasions. 

The prosecutor says that the old man – Manuel – died in the following six hours as a result of his injuries. 

In their indictments, both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution highlighted the defencelessness of the deceased. The old man had a disability in his mobility of 65 per cent, due to degenerative osteoarthrosis and other problems. 

The Public Prosecutor’s Office says that the suspect went to the house of the deceased under the pretext of claiming €600 that, supposedly, he owed him. In his confession, the defendant stated that the victim offered him a room in his house for €200 per month. They lived together from August last year until February, when Manuel threw his flatmate out of the house, according to the defendant, for no reason and despite the fact that he had paid the monthly payment in advance. 

After being arrested, he told that he went to the house to demand the money he says he owed him: some €600 euros plus another €200 corresponding to the advance payment of the rent for the month of February. 

However, the family lawyer claims that the defendant went to the house with the sole purpose of ending Manuel’s life and claims that the defendant had taken the money from the deceased. 

In fact, a neighbour of the victim related that, the day before the crime, the victim had told him the defendant had stolen €400 by using his cash card. 

After the fatal attack the defendant is said to have washed his hands and changed his shirt, before disposing of the hammer and bloodied clothes in a rubbish bin. 

A trial is due to start on December 16. 

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Written by

Dilip Kuner

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