Irish woman killed on holiday at Spanish hotel pictured as family reveal ‘distressing time’
AN Irish woman who was killed at a Spanish hotel has been pictured – with her family issuing a statement asking for “privacy during this distressing time”.
Kirsty Ward, from Dublin, was found dead in a corridor of the four star Magnolia Hotel in Salou on Sunday night.
The 36-year-old had been violently killed and a man was found beside her with a self inflicted injury.
The man was brought to hospital and later arrested.
The 30-year-old suspect with links to major gangland criminals in Dublin was remanded to prison yesterday suspected of killing his partner.
He appeared before a judge for questioning in a behind-closed-doors hearing in the Spanish city of Tarragona.
Kirsty’s heartbroken family shared a photo of her this morning and said they are “continuing to liaise with the Department of Foreign Affairs.”
They added: “The family will not be making any further comment or statements and ask for privacy during this distressing time.”
Yesterday’s court appearance comes nearly 72 hours after the suspect’s arrest at the four-star Magnolia Hotel in the Costa Dorada holiday resort of Salou.
He was held on Sunday night after being found with a “self-inflicted” wrist wound alongside the body of his partner, said to have been strangled with a ligature, in a corridor outside their second-floor room at the adults’-only hotel one street back from the seafront.
Police took him to hospital in the provincial capital Tarragona for treatment before transferring him to a city police HQ where he was held for two nights.
Reports said he was refusing to co-operate and had “slowed” police attempts to contact the dead woman’s next-of-kin by declining to give them any information.
A spokesman for the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police force said today: “The man arrested on Sunday following the discovery of a woman’s body at a hotel in Salou has been taken to court.
“This matter is now one for the courts and we will not be making any further comment.”
Only trials are held in public in Spain and today’s hearing was not open to the press and public.
CLOSED-DOORS COURT
The suspect can refuse to answer questions put to him in court under Spanish law.
The suspect was remanded to prison today by an investigating magistrate after the court hearing.
The hearing at Tarragona’s Court of Violence Against Women, a specialist court, took place behind-closed-doors and no details of what was said at the hearing were made public.
A spokesman for the investigating magistrate said: “The Court of Violence Against Women in Tarragona today received the man arrested over the death of his partner at a hotel in Salou on Sunday.
“The investigating magistrate agreed to provisionally remand him in prison without bail.
“The case has been classified as a crime of homicide/assasination and will be categorised more specifically as the investigation progresses.”
Formal charges are only laid in Spain shortly before trial. The suspect has now been formally declared an ‘investigado’ – literally a person under investigation – following yesterday’s hearing.