Ex-soldier strangled girlfriend to death with hair straightener power cord on 'make or break Spanish holiday' and now faces thirty years in jail
A former soldier has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend while on holiday in Spain, where he now faces up to three decades behind bars.
Keith Byrne, 34, killed mother-of-one Kirsty Ward by strangling her with a hair straightener power cord after she told him she was leaving him, the court heard.
He had claimed during his trial in the Spanish city of Tarragona that Ms Byrne had died by suicide at their four-star Magnolia Hotel in the popular Costa Daurada resort of Salou.
The former Irish Guards and Parachute Regiment soldier said he would never commit domestic violence and insisted he was a 'respectful and intelligent' father-of-three.
Meanwhile he demonised Ms Ward as someone who could be 'four people in one day', claiming she binged on alcohol and cocaine which he said made their romance 'toxic'.
Ms Ward's mother Jackie Ward told the court on day one of the trial that Byrne was someone she 'didn't like' and 'didn't trust'.
She said she had found out after her daughter's death that she had planned to leave Byrne during their 'make or break' holiday and had a ticket booked to return home to Dublin on July 4 2023.
She was asked as she gave evidence whether she thought her daughter, whose son Evan was 14 when she died in 2023, could have died by suicide but replied: 'She did everything for her son. She would never ever leave him. She would never do that to him.'
In a statement, the family of Ms Ward thanked the jury for 'seeing and believing in what was the truth about our beautiful Kirsty'.
'Our family now request our privacy to be respected, while we grieve and come to terms with all that has happened during the past two years.'
Byrne is now awaiting sentencing and is expected to find out his fate in around a month's time.
A private prosecutor for Ms Ward's family said they were seeking the 30-year sentence they argued for before and during the trial.
Public prosecutor Javier Goimil urged the judge to jail Byrne for 20 years, lowering his initial pre-trial demand by a year as he accepted his prior use of drink and drugs as a mitigating circumstance.
Jurors found that Byrne had 'diminished cognitive and volitional faculties' due to this when he killed Ms Ward.
Mr Goimil, a domestic violence specialist, dismissed Byrne's court claim that Ms Ward took her own life during his closing speech to the jury last Wednesday on the final day of the murder trial.
He claimed the former soldier, who had been living in Duleek, Co Meath, decided, 'you're mine or you're nobody's' and strangled his girlfriend to death because she wanted out of their relationship.
He said the forensic evidence pointed to Ms Ward having been strangled from behind between 8pm and 10pm on 2 July 2023 after 'incapacitating herself' with alcohol and cocaine.
He told the court: 'Byrne has adapted his version of events of what happened in that timeframe nearly two years on in accordance with the evidence he's learnt there is against him.
'He's saying Kirsty tied a cable round her neck and attached it to the door knob but in the state she was in it would have been impossible for her to do that and there's nothing showing there was a knot in the cable.
'What's occurred here is a violent and painful death, a strangulation from behind where someone is pulling from the front to the back. This was not a suicide.'
He added: 'She didn't leave a note for her son or her siblings or her mum and what's more she had bought a plane ticket back to Dublin for July 4.
'Kirsty's relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional.
'She decided to end it during the week they stayed at the hotel in Salou and her partner couldn't accept that decision.
'His mindset at that moment was: 'You're mine or you're nobody's. You, woman, are no-one to say you're going to detach yourself from me, the man, and have your own independent life'.
'That was why he killed her the way he did.'
He also said the amount of alcohol Ms Ward had drunk before being killed would have impacted significantly on her ability to defend herself.
Byrne's defence lawyer Jordi Cabre had been seeking his client's acquittal before the jury verdict and afterwards asked the judge to hand down the 'minimum sentence'.
It emerged following Byrne's arrest in Spain that the former soldier was wanted in the UK by Royal Military Police for going AWOL after he left for Ireland in 2017.
In a statement yesterday Ms Ward's family thanked the jury 'for seeing and believing in what was the truth about our beautiful Kirsty, that her life was taken from her, and that we were robbed of her and the beautiful life she could have had'.
They thanked the police, the public and the private prosecutors for their support, guidance and commitment and asked that their privacy to be respected, 'while we grieve and come to terms with all that has happened during the past two years'.
Following Ms Ward's death in 2023, her mother paid tribute to her as 'a fantastic friend' and 'an absolutely adored daughter'.
Speaking at the Church of John the Evangelist in Ballinteer, Dublin in July 2023, Jackie Ward said her daughter had been an amazing mother to her son.
'The two of them were an amazingly strong and tight team and I hope to continue the great work she has done.
'To me she was a fantastic friend and an absolutely adored daughter to myself and John.
'She was a caring sister, a cherished granddaughter and much loved niece and cousin. A loyal and true friend.'
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