AN IRISHMAN HAS been charged with the murder of his Dublin girlfriend and warned he could be jailed for more than two decades if convicted.

Spanish public prosecutors are seeking a 21-year prison sentence for Keith Byrne for strangling mother-of-one Kirsty Ward at their hotel while on holiday in Costa Dorada last year.

The 32-year-old remains in custody following his arrest 16 months ago.

Today it emerged that Dubliner Byrne had been formally charged after a long-running criminal probe by a specialist gender violence investigating judge, as the details of the public prosecution case against him were released for the first time.

A five-page prosecution indictment submitted to the Spanish courts accuses Byrne of strangling Kirsty to death hours after she broke up with him following a row in their hotel room.

Prosecutors claim he acted with the intention of killing the 36-year-old because he couldn’t accept the end of their eight-month relationship.

They allege that Byrne, who had been living in Duleek, Co Meath, took advantage of his “superior strength” and the fact his alleged victim had no easy escape from their room in the Magnolia Hotel in Salou.

Byrne insisted soon after his arrest over the 2 July 2023 killing that he was innocent, claiming he found Kirsty lying injured and tried to revive her in the doorway of their hotel room.

Aggravated murder

In their indictment, Tarragona-based public prosecutors disputed his version of events.

They said: “During the holiday period, which began on June 30 2023 and was due to last a week, the climate of conflict and disengagement between the accused and the victim continued.

“On July 2 2023, after a new row that afternoon in their hotel room, she decided to end their relationship, following which the accused man left.

“About 9pm the same day he returned to the hotel and had another row with the victim in their hotel room.”

During this row, prosecutors allege, Bryne strangled Kirsty.

The indictment continues: “The accused when he strangled his victim did so taking advantage of the privacy of their hotel room and his superior physical strength.

“She was also under the effects of a prior consumption of alcohol, cocaine, Benzoylecgonine and Lidocaine which prevented her from defending herself in equal conditions, leaving her unable to do anything to avoid her death.”

Public prosecutors are accusing Byrne of aggravated murder, rather than homicide, under Spanish law because of his alleged execution of the crime in a way that left the victim defenceless.

As well as a 21-year prison sentence if convicted, prosecutors are demanding he pay Kirsty’s teenage child, 14 at the time of her death, €150,000 in compensation, and pay her mother €100,000.

No date for the trial has been set, but it is expected to take place next year.

Lawyers acting for Kirsty’s family are also expected to prosecute him alongside the Spanish state in the same case. The punishment they are seeking on conviction is not yet known.