Alicante’s Provincial Court sentenced Juan Antonio Martínez Martínez to 21 years in prison on Monday for the murder and rape of his partner, Yolanda Aniorte Cuenca, in Orihuela in 2014. Martinez confessed during the trial that he had used a gym weight (a dumbbell) to beat his wife to death.

The Prosecutor requested a 27-year sentence for the murder and rape but the president of the court sentenced him to Twelve years for murder and nine for the sexual assault that he committed on his wife on the same night that ended her life.

According to the statement issued by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV), once he is out of prison, Martinez will not be able to approach his daughter, who was just 3 years old at the time of the murder, for a further ten years.

The events occurred in August 2014. The victim, aged 39, fell sleep after which the defendant took a dumbbell, removed the weighted discs from one end and beat his wife on the head up to ten times after which he also carried out the sexually assault. He then took a taxi to Murcia, where he was arrested two days later in the La Fama neighborhood.