Tragic week for domestic violence in Spain, with five deaths registered

Spanish police are searching for a man believed to have killed his partner, a 46-year-old woman who was found dead early Thursday morning in Torrox (M¨¢laga). The body was found inside an apartment in the Andalusian municipality, the Cadena SER radio network reported. The victim had been stabbed.

The incident comes on the back of several more cases of gender violence in Spain this week. Two women and two children were killed in three separate episodes of domestic violence, bringing the total number of victims so far this year to 41, according to figures released by the Equality Ministry.

In Castell¨®n, a 48-year-old man killed his two little girls, aged six and two, then committed suicide by jumping out the window of their sixth-floor apartment. The alleged murderer had been separated from his wife for a year, and court records show two proceedings against him for gender violence. In January, a doctor who examined the ex-wife filed a report, and in February the woman herself filed a complaint for threatening behavior, but both reports were shelved.

In Maracena (Granada), a 49-year-old man stabbed his ex-partner to death on Tuesday. A neighbor called the emergency services when Nuria Alonso Mesa, 39, began calling for help out the window at around 9am. By the time help arrived, the victim was lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen. There was no record of complaints against the suspect, who has been arrested.

In Bilbao, the police have arrested a man after finding his wife dead in their apartment. Her throat had been slit, and her husband had a small cut on his neck. On Thursday it emerged that a judge at a gender violence court in the Basque city had denied victim Maguette Mbeugou¡¯s earlier request to issue a restraining order against her husband, on the grounds that she already had plans to move to a different apartment with her young daughters.

And in Torremolinos (M¨¢laga), a 37-year-old man from Romania has been arrested after repeatedly stabbing and beating a Filipino woman whom he had met two or three days earlier, and who had refused to enter into a relationship with him. The victim, who is recovering from her wounds, was found wandering around the streets of Torremolinos. Her alleged attacker voluntarily went to the police to confess the crime. ¡°I would rather spend 20 years in jail than have you ignore me,¡± he allegedly told his victim before attacking her.

English version by Susana Urra.