Prosecutors will seek 25-year prison sentence for Brit accused of horrendous Camposol murder of Vanesa in 2022
A British man will stand trial accused of killing his wife in Camposol as the Public Prosecutor argues the crime was an act of gender-based violence
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Murcia is seeking a 25-year prison sentence for Michael Carter, the Englishman accused of beating his wife, Vanesa, to death in Camposol in December 2022, on the grounds that the killing was a murder committed in the context of gender-based violence.
Michael, who remains in provisional detention, will be tried by a jury and will be 73 years old when he takes the stand. He is accused of killing his wife, Vanesa, 57, outside their home on Camposol’s D Sector, where the couple had been living for only a few weeks.
The police investigation has now been completed. The Third Section of the Provincial Court of Murcia, which handles cases involving gender-based violence, will oversee the trial. A start date has not yet been set. If proceedings begin in 2026, the hearing will take place almost four years after the events under investigation.
A heinous crime that rocked the community
According to the prosecution’s case, Vanesa suffered numerous injuries at the time of her death. In addition to a blow to the head, the autopsy carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine found fractures to her sternum and several ribs. Both ankles were also broken.
Forensic experts determined that the injuries were sustained at the same time as her death and were not older, healed fractures. Michael has consistently maintained in his defence that what happened was an accident.
In the early hours of the morning when Vanesa died, emergency services received a call from neighbours who reported hearing the man shouting for help in English. Urgent medical assistance was requested for a woman lying unconscious in the street with a head injury.
Paramedics were unable to save her life and police officers who attended the scene reportedly found Michael showing signs of having consumed a large amount of alcohol, as neighbours had indicated.
Under Spain’s Penal Code, intoxication may be considered a mitigating circumstance at trial, depending on the court’s assessment.
Court documents also reveal that Vanesa had filed five complaints between 2007 and 2014 alleging that her partner had assaulted her. At the time of her death, her case was inactive in the VioGén System, Spain’s national system for monitoring gender violence cases, while a restraining order previously imposed on Michael had expired.
Speaking about the case, then Government Delegate for Gender Violence Victoria Rosell said, “We must admit that sometimes the system fails and protection must be improved when there are five complaints between 2007 and 2014, and in 2022 he attacks her. It is never enough.”
In the wake of the case, Mazarrón Town Council voted to be able to take stronger and swifter action in cases of gender violence via the legal right of ‘acusación popular’ (popular accusation), which allows anyone to present an accusation of a crime even if they are not the direct victim, defending the interests of others.
The idea is that, if this system had been in place prior to Vanesa’s death, her neighbours might have been able to report Michael for a crime even if she didn’t, and the whole tragedy could have been avoided.
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