Kirsty Ward (Image: Supplied by family)
Keith Byrne was found guilty of strangling Kirsty Ward with the power cord of a hair straightener after she expressed her intention to leave him.
The deliberation took jurors three days, concluding that Byrne killed the 36 year old mother in the Costa Daurada resort of Salou.
Byrne, a 34 year old Irishman, defended himself during the trial in Tarragona, eastern Spain, by claiming that Kirsty committed suicide at their four-star Magnolia Hotel. He painted himself as a “respectful and intelligent” dad of three who would never engage in domestic violence.
Instead, he portrayed Kirsty negatively, suggesting she exhibited multiple personalities exacerbated by alcohol and cocaine use – substances he blamed for making their relationship “toxic”.
Late last night, following the jury’s decision, the presiding judge retired to deliberate on the sentence—a common practice in Spain—and Byrne is anticipated to await nearly a month to discover his fate. Kirsty’s family’s private prosecutor still insists on a 30-year sentence they had demanded throughout the trial, reports the Irish Mirror.
Kirsty Ward (Image: Supplied by family)
The public prosecutor, Javier Goimil, recommended a 20-year jail term for Byrne, who committed the crime on 2 July 2023, taking a year off his initial pre-trial request. This reduced sentence came after acknowledgment of Byrne’s drug addiction as a diminishing factor, as the jury accepted he had “diminished mental faculties” when he committed the murder.
The killer was led handcuffed from the court after learning he was now a convicted criminal after nearly two years on remand in prison following his arrest. The prosecution painted a damning picture of Byrne in their final address to the jury, with Mr Goimil, an expert on domestic violence, dismissing Byrne’s assertion that Kirsty took her own life.
Mr Goimil charged the ex-soldier with a heinous act of possessive violence, suggesting Byrne decided, “You’re mine or you’re nobody’s” and killed his partner as she tried to escape their volatile union. He pointed to forensic evidence which indicated that between 8pm and 10pm on 2 July 2023, after Kirsty had incapacitated herself with drink and drugs, she was strangled from behind.
The prosecutor presented a critical analysis of Byrne’s altered narrative, claiming, “Byrne has adapted his version of events of what happened in that timeframe nearly two years on in accordance with the evidence he’s learnt there is against him. He’s saying Kirsty tied a cable round her neck and attached it to the door knob but in the state she was in it would have been impossible for her to do that and there’s nothing showing there was a knot in the cable.”
Jurors found Keith Byrne (pictured) guilty after three days of deliberations of strangling Kirsty Ward to death with a hair straightener power cord after she told him she was leaving him (Image: Supplied)
He emphasized the brutality and agony of the murder, stating, “What’s occurred here is a violent and painful death, a strangulation from behind where someone is pulling from the front to the back. This was not a suicide.”
He added: “She didn’t leave a note for her son or her siblings or her mum and what’s more she had bought a plane ticket back to Dublin for July 4.
“Kirsty’s relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional. She decided to end it during the week they stayed at the hotel in Salou and her partner couldn’t accept that decision. His mindset at that moment was: ‘Or you’re mine or you’re nobody’s. You, woman, are no-one to say you’re going to detach yourself from me the man and have your own independent life. That was why he killed her the way he did.”
He also mentioned that Kirsty’s alcohol consumption prior to her death would have significantly affected her ability to defend herself. On the first day of the trial on April 23, Kirsty’s mother Jackie Ward expressed her immediate distrust of Byrne, saying she “didn’t like” and “didn’t trust” him from the outset and revealed posthumously that her daughter had intended to leave him during their “make or break” holiday.
When asked if she believed her daughter, who left behind a 14 year old son named Evan, could have taken her own life, Jackie Ward vehemently denied the possibility, stating: “She did everything for her son. She would never ever leave him. She would never do that to him.”
The jury began their deliberations following the May 1 Bank Holiday. Jordi Cabre, Byrne’s defence attorney, had argued for his client’s acquittal and subsequently requested the judge impose the “minimum sentence” after the jury reached its verdict.
Kirsty’s bereaved family released a heartfelt statement following the jury’s verdict, expressing profound gratitude: “Our family wish to thank our private prosecutor Estela Cortes and her team for guiding, supporting and representing Kirsty, her son and our family at this very difficult and painful time; Javier Goimil the public prosecutor for his commitment and passion; the Spanish investigation teams and police for their expertise, empathy and understanding; and the jury for seeing and believing in what was the truth about our beautiful Kirsty.”
They continued with a plea for privacy: “Our family now request our privacy to be respected, while we grieve and come to terms with all that has happened during the past two years.”
Kirsty Ward (Image: Supplied by family)
Jackie Ward described her daughter after her death as a “fantastic friend” to her parents and “an absolutely adored daughter.” She told the congregation at the Church of John the Evangelist in Ballinteer, Dublin in July 2023 that she had been an amazing mum to Evan, saying: “The two of them were an amazingly strong and tight team and I hope to continue the great work she has done. To me she was a fantastic friend and an absolutely adored daughter to myself and John. She was a caring sister, a cherished granddaughter and much loved niece and cousin. A loyal and true friend.”
An online fundraising appeal Kirsty’s family launched before the trial to help fund their legal costs has so far raised more than €32,000. For more information or to donate, click here.
It emerged following Byrne’s Spanish arrest that he was wanted in England by Royal Military Police for going AWOL after he left for Ireland in 2017. Reports in Ireland last March said Spanish prosecutors intended to interview at least two of his former partners about assisting the case by giving background information about him. One of these women previously claimed in an interview with the Irish Independent that Byrne had tried to strangle her in an incident at a property in Co Meath a number of years ago.