A Briton living in Majorca is accused of strangling his wife with a mobile phone charging cable during a row.
Warren Lyttle, 50, was arrested after calling emergency services from his sixth-floor flat near Magaluf and allegedly admitting killing his wife Lisa Jane, 49.
Paramedics and police reportedly found marks on Mrs Lyttle’s neck when they arrived, and officers claim she was strangled during an argument.
Lyttle was arrested at 3.30am on Saturday and kept in a police station overnight on suspicion of homicide before he appeared in court in Palma on Sunday.
He was led into the criminal court with his hands cuffed behind his back for a closed hearing with a judge.
A post-mortem examination on Saturday showed his wife, who has an 18-year-old daughter, had died from asphyxia due to strangulation.
Tests are understood to have shown that she and her husband had been drinking before she died.
Although she took extended holidays in Majorca, Mrs Lyttle spent most of her time at her home in Kilburn, north west London, with her daughter.
Her husband is thought to have lived in Majorca for about a decade.
The alleged killing has left islanders in shock, and 300 people held a five-minute silence on Saturday afternoon in memory of Mrs Lyttle.
In a statement released before the gathering, town hall officials said: “The council is united in condemning this act of violence and in sharing the pain and grief of Lisa Jane’s daughter, relatives and friends.
“The crime was reported by the author himself in a phone call to the emergency services.
“Local police were the first to respond and tried to revive Lisa Jane but without success.
“Paramedics could do nothing to save her either.” A spokesman for the Guardia Civil, which arrested Lyttle, said: “A British man who is resident in Majorca phoned the emergency services around 3.20am on Saturday and confessed during the call to killing his wife.
“The victim was strangled with a telephone cord during a row.”
Local officials said there was no history of domestic violence between the couple.
Lyttle’s mother Joan, speaking from her home in Neasden, north west London, said: “We don’t know how this could have possibly happened. It has left us in total shock. We’re still waiting to talk to Warren to find out what went on. There were no problems in the marriage as far as we knew. They were happy.”
Officials have yet to charge him. Under Spanish law, defendants are not usually charged until shortly before their trial.
Lyttle was questioned on Sunday by judge Jose Luis Castro, who made headlines around the world in January 2014 after ordering Princess Cristina of Spain and her husband Inaki Urdangarin to face trial on charges of tax fraud in an ongoing case.
One neighbour living on the same floor of Lyttle’s apartment block, the Apartamentos Siesta in Costa de la Calma a short drive from Magaluf, said he had not heard any disturbance during the night when Mrs Lyttle died.
He added: “I didn’t see anything strange. I only realised something had happened once the police arrived.
“I saw the police officers and then a man they had laid on the floor in the corridor.”
Daily Mail