Simon Hunter
THE NATIONAL Police have detained a 22-year-old man in Benidorm after his partner fell to her death on Thursday from the window of a sixth-floor flat. The suspect insisted that the tragic incident was accidental.
Both the arrested man and the victim, who was also aged 22, had Spanish nationality and were residents of the Alicante Province coastal city.
The incident took place at around 5am, but the police had been called to the apartment earlier that night after a neighbour alerted the authorities that the couple were having an argument, police sources told Spanish daily El Pais.
Investigators were reportedly trying to establish whether the death could have been yet another episode of domestic violence.
The central government’s delegate in the Valencia region, Pilar Bernabé, stated that it was the suspect who alerted the authorities that the woman had fallen from the window with a call to the emergency services.
This latest episode comes after a series of suspected domestic violence cases in Spain. In Madrid, a 37-year-old man stabbed to death the 20-year-old daughter of his former partner in Madrid.
In a village in Toledo province, meanwhile, a man is suspected of killing his pregnant ex-wife.
Official figures show that 46 women have died so far this year in domestic violence cases, with this December proving to be the blackest month.
If the latest killings are confirmed as gender violence cases, a total of 12 women will have died at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, potentially the worst month since records began.
Read more:
- Series of domestic violence killings set to turn December into one of the worst months on record in Spain
- Man in Madrid detained for homicide after leaving wife to die on floor after a fall
