Dilip Kuner
TEARS, tension and trauma rocked a Spanish courtroom this week as the heartbroken mother of Kirsty Ward, the Irish woman allegedly murdered by her boyfriend on a make-or-break holiday to Salou, broke down giving harrowing evidence.
“I didn’t like him. I didn’t trust him,” sobbed Jackie Ward as she faced Keith Byrne, the ex-soldier accused of strangling her 36-year-old daughter to death in their hotel room at the four-star Magnolia Hotel in July 2023. “She would never take her own life – she lived for her son,” breakingnews.ie reported.
Public prosecutors say Byrne, 32, used a hair straightener cord to strangle Kirsty just hours after she dumped him.
They claim he couldn’t handle the breakup and snapped. A grim five-page indictment alleges he waited until 9pm before storming back into the room to kill her.
Prosecutors want him caged for 21 years, and compensation of €150,000 for her son Evan, 14 at the time she died, and €150,000 for Jackie.
But Dubliner Byrne – who once guarded the Queen at Buckingham Palace – claims he’s the real victim.
Speaking from a Catalan prison in an exclusive 2023 interview with the Olive Press, Byrne insisted: “I found her cold. She’d already gone. I screamed for help and tried CPR. I loved her.”
READ MORE:
- New MTV documentary investigating the death of Kirsty Maxwell in Spain’s Benidorm is a stark reminder of dangers faced by Brits abroad
- EXCLUSIVE: I didn’t strangle Kirsty Ward! I tried to bring her back to life
He claimed CCTV proves he was at a beach bar before discovering Kirsty dead with a ligature around her neck, blocking the door from inside.
His family backed him. Sister Tara insisted Kirsty, who suffered from mental health struggles and had reportedly been hospitalised in Dublin, was spiraling. “She’d gone off with another man the night before. Keith wanted to end things on good terms. He was heading back to pack and leave.”
The court heard that Kirsty had decided it was ‘make or break.’ Jackie told the court: “I knew something was wrong when she left. A mother knows.”
Now, with the court gripped by grief and conflicting stories, a jury must decide: Did Byrne lash out in a jealous rage – or stumble into a tragedy he couldn’t stop?
The trial continues.
