ARCHIVED - Dutch handyman jailed for 15 years for brutally beating an elderly British woman to death at her Alicante home

The 71-year-old victim suffered horrific injuries during the fatal attack and robbery in Granja de Rocamora, Alicante province

A Dutch handyman has been jailed for 14 years and nine months for the brutal murder of a 71-year-old British woman at her home in the Alicante town of Granja de Rocamora.

The killer was known to his victim, having carried out plumbing, electrical and painting work at her home for four years before beating her to death and stealing 600 euros during a vicious and sustained attack in 2019.

In an earlier trial last year, the prosecution requested 30 years in prison, and a 25-year-term was handed out. However, this sentence was annulled by the High Court of Justice due to a "lack of motivation in the jury's verdict",  and this week, an agreement was reached between the prosecution and the Dutch defendant's defense and he was given 13 years for murder and 21 months in jail for robbery with violence.

Alicante Provincial Court also ordered the victim's family be compensated 104,000 euros.

The court heard that at around 10pm on November 16, 2019, the defendant appeared at the home of the British woman, who lived alone. This wasn't unusual as he regularly visited the property to carry out work and sometimes borrow money which he told the court he "always paid back".

On this occasion, he asked the victim to lend him 50 euros. The elderly woman agreed and together with her attacker went into the living room to find her purse, containing 600 euros. As she made her way back to the kitchen, turning her back on the defendant, he grabbed the pensioner, who weighed just 57 kilos, by the neck from behind and threw her to the ground before unleashing "numerous, repeated, intense and forceful blows to her face, head, neck and thorax".

It was heard the defendant, a burly 1.8-metre man twice the victim's weight, then strangled her and placed one of his knees on the woman's neck and chest, "pressing and squeezing them hard and intensely."

The deceased suffered multiple cranial, rib and sternal fractures, and rupture of the cardiac and a complete section of the spinal cord, injuries that led to her death. After the horrific attack, the defendant fled, leaving the woman's body on the kitchen floor. He was arrested for murder three months later.

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