COSTA DEL SOL NEWS: Trial starts of man who allegedly killed 77-year-old flatmate with 52 blows from a hammer

THE trial has started today (December 16) of a 70-year-old man who allegedly beat his disabled 77-year-old former flatmate 52 times with a hammer then left him to die. 

Malaga’s Public Prosecutor is calling for him to be jailed for 23 years and to pay the victim’s two daughters €100,000 compensation each. 

The Euro Weekly News has previously reported that the victim had been the alleged attacker’s flatmate until a few days before the attack. They had lived in the Costa del Sol town of Torremolinos in Spain.

The event took place last February 25 in the house where they had lived together. The prosecution statement says that at around 4 pm there was an argument between the victim and the accused during which the man took a hammer and, with the intention of killing him, beat his flatmate on more than 52 occasions. 

The prosecutor says that the old man – Manuel – died in the following six hours as a result of his injuries. He had been left alive but seriously injured by his attacker. 

It was not until a week later that the defendant went to Torremolinos National police station and told them he could not live with the “torment” of having killed someone. Officers went to the flat and found the victim’s body. 

In their indictments, both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution highlighted the defencelessness of the deceased. The old man had a disability in his mobility of 65 per cent, due to degenerative osteoarthrosis and other problems. 

The Public Prosecutor’s Office says that the suspect went to the house of the deceased under the pretext of claiming €600 that, supposedly, he owed him. In his confession, the defendant stated that the victim offered him a room in his house for €200 per month. They lived together from August last year until February, when Manuel threw his flatmate out of the house, according to the defendant, for no reason and despite the fact that he had paid the monthly payment in advance. 

After the fatal attack the defendant is said to have washed his hands and changed his shirt, before disposing of the hammer and bloodied clothes in a rubbish bin.