OFFICERS from Spain’s National Police force have arrested a man in Madrid after he allegedly left his wife to die on the floor of their apartment after she suffered a fall. The victim had multiple sclerosis and reportedly agonised for five days before her husband finally called an ambulance.
Investigators believe that the woman fell on November 29, according to a report in Spanish news agency Europa Press. Instead of calling for help, her husband, 68, is alleged to have left her where she was without providing any care.
It was five days later, on December 4, that he made a call to the emergency services, claiming that she had tripped that same day and that he had not called for help previously ‘because that’s what she requested’.
When the authorities arrived, they found that the woman had a very low body temperature and was in a highly unsanitary condition. She died that same day.
The man was first arrested for failing to provide assistance but has since been taken into custody on a homicide charge.
The suspect has a previous record for domestic abuse and for threats, brought against him both by one of his daughters and the victim herself.
The central government’s delegation against gender violence has already confirmed this as a domestic abuse case. According to Europa Press, 40 women have been killed in such cases this year, six of them in the Madrid region.
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