An expat from Britain has admitted to murdering his wife during the Spanish murder trial. He then immediately claimed that he didn’t recall strangling or stabbing his ex-wife to death.
Geoffrey Elton is a wealth father of two and 57-year-old Geoffrey Elton insisted that he wasn’t crazy after his shocked confession moments after he appeared on Monday.
The computer programmer told a court in Malaga that he lashed out after being humiliated in front of neighbours by his headteacher wife of 33 years Gloria Tornay, following a ‘mutual’ decision to divorce and a day of packing cases.
But he claimed he had no recollection of forcing their teenage son Alonso out of their £560,000 home in Estepona before stabbing the 58-year-old between 11 and 16 times.
Since the March 9th murder, Brit was also a Florida resident and has been in remand prison.
The nine jurors now have the opportunity to decide whether he will be sent to a Spanish prison cell or secure psychiatric center, and then expelled from the UK.
Geoffrey Elton, aged 57, said that he reacted badly to being made fun of by Gloria Tornay his wife, after being insulted before neighbours. (Pictured Monday: Elton at court).
Elton (pictured at court with his lawyer) claimed he had no recollection of forcing their teenage son Alonso out of their £560,000 home in Estepona before stabbing the 58-year-old between 11 and 16 times
Elton confessed to his crime after Juan Antonio Lopez Alvarez, his lawyer, said: “He is dangerous, but I want my clients placed in secure psychiatric centres, not prison, so that he can receive the treatment experts recommend before being expelled from the UK. He cannot re-enter Spain.”
Francisco Javier Urquia Perez is one of two prosecutions seeking a sentence of 14 years imprisonment for the self-confessed murderer. If jurors find him criminally responsible and indict him for murder, he counters: “Not only did this horrendous crime occur but he also had the nerve to claim he was mentally ill.”
To explain why Gloria was found with methadone, and morphine, he said: “Geoffrey Elton did it to her to decrease her defenses.”
“He had stabbed her so often that one of the knives he made was left on her skin.
“He turned off the power, tore the three cell phones from the house and took his son Alonso (15 years old) outside. To increase the chances of him killing her, Alonso also stabbed the mother to death.
“Today’s man will want you to believe that this man was insane when he did what he did. He did it because Gloria was ready for a divorce, and he wanted to be with her.
Elton (57), a wealthy father-of-2, said he was not mad following his shocked confession just seconds after taking to the witness stand Monday.
“He was a widower and lived well. It is clear that he planned the entire thing before he started his terrible crime.
She was 16 times stabbed by the lawyer. He described himself as being a friend to Spaniard Gloria, her family and will be prosecuting Elton in their place.
Julio Angel Martinez Carazo, the state prosecutor for the State of Chile says that she was cut 11 times by the Brit expat after they had sex before trying to strangle and suffocate her in their bedroom at a high-end residential property near Estepona.
Alonso (18 years old) was shouting outside after his father tried to delay the arrival of emergency workers.
After massive blood loss, she went into hypovolemic shock and died.
While the state prosecutor acknowledged that the self-confessed murderer has a mental disorder and submitted an indictment to court prior to trial as an “extenuating circumstance”, he insisted that he was aware of his actions, and that criminal prosecution should result.
Elton’s first question to the judge was “Did the State Prosecutor say you killed your wife?”
He answered “Yes” in Spanish, even though a translator was right beside him.
Since the murder on March 9, 2019, Briton, along with his wife, was held in remand prison (photo taken during his arrest).
“I recall going to talk to my neighbors and Gloria laughing at my inability to take my mobile. They started to tell lies to me, and I became very annoyed,” he said.
“I bought beer, and she finished it. She went to bed and I stayed in my room.”
I don’t think that she was strangled or stabbed.
“All that I can remember are the ambulance, the blue lights, and Alonso holding a knife outside our house. It was all spontaneous. She was never drugged, 100%.
He stressed that he was not accusing the teenage victim over the murder, but also said the divorcement was a mutual decision triggered by Gloria’s desire to return to the small village she used to live in.
Three years ago, he admitted that he had cheated on his wife with another woman. However, a Gloria later said that he was now free to forgive him.
In a lengthy court speech, he claimed that he had not taken his cell phone to the neighbours’ house the day after his wife’s death because he thought the police would be monitoring it. Gloria’s family was spying on him through a friend at the Jordanian Embassy.
He denied that he told doctors he was being ordered to kill her by a TV broadcast message. Instead, he stated: “There were WhatsApp messages and YouTube videos and they affected my life and may have had something to with it.
They all were images. They were all images. One showed a pathway to calm water with lovely houses to either side. This I took to signify tranquility. The other was of water breaking onto rocks, which I thought represented danger.
Elton’s trial continues today, with testimony from their youngest son. The jury will retire to decide its verdict in three days.
Alonso, a younger brother of Alonso, showed up to court on the first day. However, he was not summoned to testify.