THE sister of a British woman who died at the Camposol urbanisation in Mazarron has told a Murcia jury that violence was “a constant” throughout her sister’s 25-year relationship with the man accused of killing her.
Michael John C., a British national, is on trial at Murcia Provincial Court accused of murdering his partner, Vanessa Elisabeth, in December 2022.
They allege that after a day-long drinking session in local bars, the couple argued and he beat her to the ground in front of their house and car. He then allegedly kicked her repeatedly, jumped on her, pinned her down and covered her mouth.
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She suffered injuries including blows to the head.
Prosecutors are seeking 25 years in prison for murder.
The defence denies any intention to kill and maintains that her death was an accident.
His lawyer says that when they arrived home, Vanessa got out of the car to stop their dogs from escaping, and that he accidentally hit her while reversing. He admits he had been drinking.
“Not seeing Vanessa return, he got out of the car and found her lying on the ground, just a few inches from the car, with her head next to the kerb, motionless,” the lawyer said.
“He approached her and said, ‘Hello, hello, wake up’. She didn’t react and he saw that she was bleeding.”
Giving evidence by video link from Cardiff, the victim’s sister said the accused had repeatedly assaulted her sister, both in the UK and in Spain, which she blamed on his drinking.
She said he had also threatened her when she stepped in to defend her sister.
She told the court her sister had tried to leave him several times by returning to the UK, but he pressured her into coming back by threatening to harm her dogs.
She said the violence had left her sister needing hip surgery in 2018.
Her sister had no income of her own and moved home frequently with the accused, she said. The two sisters kept in touch by video call on a laptop while he was asleep, and she said she had seen bruises on her sister’s face and legs during those calls.
Questioned by the defence, she admitted she had never visited her sister’s home in Spain because “most of the time I didn’t know where she lived”.
She said a mobile phone she had bought for her sister had “disappeared in Spain”, and accused him of controlling her sister.
A neighbour told the court that, close to midnight on the night of the death, her husband heard a man shouting outside. When she went out, she found the victim lying on her back in the road.
“I tried to feel a pulse, but there was no pulse. She was very cold,” she said.
She said the accused told her his partner had fallen and hit her head on the ground. Rather than showing distress, she said, he picked up some keys from the street and began shouting abuse at the woman lying on the ground.
According to the neighbour, he did not cry or touch the victim. When another neighbour told him she was dead, he went inside to get a cigarette, and she heard him tell his pets their “mum” was dead.
A second neighbour said the accused had behaved “completely without compassion”.
Vanessa reported her partner to police for domestic violence five times between 2007 and 2014. Protection measures had been put in place, but they had expired in 2015, and there was no restraining order in force at the time of her death.
At the time of her death, the Spanish government’s delegate against gender violence, Victoria Rosell, said: “We have to admit that on occasions the system fails.”
The trial is scheduled to run over six sessions, and the accused is due to give evidence on October 30.
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