A former Dublin soldier has been jailed for 15 years for the murder of his Irish girlfriend at a hotel in Spain.
Along with the sentence for the murder of Kirsty Ward (36), Keith Byrne (34) was also handed a restraining order preventing him from contacting Ms Ward’s family or going within one kilometre of them for 25 years.
He was also ordered to pay Ms Ward’s teenage son €150,000 in compensation, her mother €80,000 and each of her siblings €20,000.
The two years Byrne has already spent in prison on remand and following his murder conviction in May will qualify as time served.
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The sentencing decision was revealed overnight in a 121-page ruling by the judge who presided over Byrne’s trial in the city of Tarragona, Spain.
Public prosecutors had demanded a 20-year jail sentence after a jury convicted Byrne of strangling Ms Ward to death with a hair straightener power cord at a hotel in Salou on July 2nd, 2023, after she told him she was leaving him.
Estela Cortes, a private prosecutor for Ms Ward’s family, said she was still seeking the 30-year sentence she argued for before and during the trial.
Judge Susana Calvo Gonzalez ruled the fact Byrne and Ms Ward had been in a stable eight-month relationship made the crime more serious.
However, she said his consumption of alcohol and drugs before the murder diminished his cognitive faculties and was a prevailing mitigating factor.
Rejecting arguments from Ms Cortes over the 30-year prison term, the judge said: “I understand that there is a prevailing basis for imposing the lower penalty and, therefore, imposing a sentence of between seven years and six months and 15 years.
“Within that range, the recognition of the aggravating circumstance and the motivation for the act . . . lead to the imposition of the maximum penalty, which is 15 years in prison.”
Jurors found Byrne guilty after three days of deliberations of murdering his girlfriend on May 7th.
He had claimed during his trial that Ms Ward had died by suicide at the four-star Magnolia Hotel.
Byrne described himself as a “respectful and intelligent” father of three who would never commit an act of domestic violence. He demonised Ms Byrne as someone who could be “four people in one day”. He said this was especially the case after bingeing on alcohol and cocaine, which he claimed made their romance “toxic”.
Public prosecutor Javier Goimil, a domestic violence specialist, rubbished Byrne’s court claim that Ms Ward took her own life during his closing speech to the jury on the final day of the murder trial.
He claimed the former soldier, who had been living in Duleek, Co Meath, decided “you’re mine or you’re nobody’s”. Mr Goimil added that Byrne strangled his girlfriend to death because she wanted out of their relationship. He said forensic evidence pointed to Ms Ward being strangled from behind between 8pm and 10pm on July 2nd, 2023, after “incapacitating herself” with alcohol and cocaine.
He said “Kirsty’s relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional”.
He also said the amount of alcohol Ms Ward had drunk before being killed would have impacted significantly her ability to defend herself.
Ms Ward’s parents criticised the sentence for leniency, telling RTÉ it “devalues someone’s life”.
“It’s not correct. It’s not right. It’s not justice. It’s not what we set out for,” her father, John, said.
Her mother, Jackie, said: “We had fought for two years for Kirsty to get justice for her.
“The jury did their job very well in finding him guilty of murder. Unfortunately, the judge made the decision to downgrade it to 15 years.
“We are as a family broken and very disappointed at that news.”
