15 September 2023 , 09:03
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Police on Spain’s Costa Blanca have arrested a Norwegian man on suspicion of stabbing to death a British woman believed to be his partner.
Detectives confirmed the incident and the arrest in a short statement this morning, A spokesman for the Civil Guard said: “We can confirm that today at 7.40am we were alerted to a possible domestic violence incident at a property in Orihuela Costa which resulted in the death of the victim.
“The wounds she had could correspond to an attack with a bladed weapon. The victim is a British woman aged 76 and the suspected killer, who is under arrest, is a Norwegian man aged 82.”
Detectives said there were no previous reports of any problems between the alleged aggressor and the victim. It is not yet clear whether the man and woman were living permanently in Spain or were on holiday. Orihuela Costa is south of Alicante.
Well-placed sources confirmed the Brit was the partner of the suspected killer. They are understood to have lived together at the property. It is not clear if they were married. A person described as a friend is said to have called the Civil Guard.
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One unconfirmed report today said the pal had gone to the property at the request of the man arrested so he could help him hand himself into cops. Sources close to the investigation said they believed the incident that led to the British woman dying occurred in the early hours of this morning.
In March a 69-year-old British man was arrested in the same area of Orihuela Costa over the fatal stabbing of his 64-year-old partner who was also from the UK. Police said at the time the suspect had been arrested as he tried to flee the couple’s home. Officials could not confirm today whether he remained in jail following his remand in prison by an investigating judge.
Irene Montero, then Spain’s Equality Minister and current acting Equality Minister following recent general elections, tweeted at the time: “Today’s murder of a 64-year-old woman in Alicante province is being investigated as a gender-violence killing.
“Eradicating male violence of this kind is a question of state. We need a show of unity from all institutions and the whole of society.”
In March it emerged another British man facing a murder charge over the frenzied stabbing of his wife at their Costa del Sol flat had died in hospital and was set to be given a pauper’s funeral. David Cadwallader, 80, passed away in December last year, less than a month after being remanded in custody following the brutal killing of his wife Lesley who was also from the UK.
News of his death on December 2 last year was only made public four months later. Reports at the time of the killing said she had phoned the emergency services in a desperate SOS call to say she had been knifed four times before the line went dead.
Her husband, who was thought to have Alzheimer’s, was discovered lying on a bed at their beachfront apartment in Torremolinos and arrested after police forced entry with the help of firefighters. A judge decided to send him to prison while he continued to investigate him over the November 4 2022 killing, although officials confirmed at the time he had been transferred to a specialist psychiatric wing.
Although the expat had officially been placed under investigation he had yet to be formally charged with any crime at the time of his death. In December last year, a 56-year-old British man was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife of the same nationality at their home near Mazarron in the south-east Spanish province of Murcia. She was found dead on the ground outside the bungalow they purchased earlier this year. It was not immediately clear today how far the criminal investigation into that incident has progressed and whether the man arrested remains in custody.