Daughter, 10 raises alarm as mother stabbed to death by her German lover in Coin
A BRITISH woman has become the first victim of domestic violence in Spain.
The Coin-based mother-of-three was stabbed to death by her German partner, 59, during an argument on January 3.
Police were called after her 10-year-old daughter phoned her grandparents in England with the news.
British police quickly phoned their counterparts in Malaga, who were on the scene in minutes.
But by the time they arrived the 42-year-old, who lived in the Miralmonte estate, between Coin and Alhaurin el Grande, was dead.
Her body was found after her daughter led them to her mother’s bedroom where her body was splayed out on the bed with a single knife wound.
The first of three women already killed in domestic violence incidents in Spain this year, a kitchen knife was found beside her and the room had been ransacked.
Her boyfriend, known as Jimmy Welles, was later apprehended at 4.30am and confessed to the Guardia Civil within hours.
Hatto – a bar worker, who had trained as an account – had been out drinking with her boyfriend on the even of her 42nd birthday.
A near neighbour said: “I often heard them arguing and screaming in the house.”
While the German, from Frankfurt, is now being held in nearby Alhaurin prison, the girl is being cared for by her grandparents after they jetted to Spain.
Her aunt is also on hand to comfort the girl, who blurted out the news “mummy’s dead!” in the tragic phone call on Friday.
Hatto, who comes from Crawley, in West Sussex, is understood to be divorced and had two older boys who are now in their early 20s.
A keen traveller, she worked in bars and clubs before training as an accountant.
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said “Consular officials are providing assistance and are in contact with the Spanish authorities and Sussex Police.”
Police said the victim had never lodged a complaint of domestic abuse.
Over 2007 some 71 women were murdered in cases of domestic violence across Spain.
So far, three women have died in 2008 with one killed in Barcelona, while another, a Russian, was murdered in Torrevieja.
