A man allegedly beat his wife senseless with a hammer and then calmly sat down to watch TV.

At the time of writing this article, the woman is in a critical condition, whilst the husband is being held in police cells.

This kind of domestic violence is more typical to low-income, marginal area, families but in this case the accused is a 51-year-old, out-of-work lawyer and the victim a 60-year-old school teacher on early retirement.

The incident occurred yesterday afternoon in Calle Antillas. Several family members of the wife had called at the door around 14.30h but the man refused to open it, which is when they contacted the police. The woman usually had lunch and dinner with relatives.

When the police arrived it was to find the man reportedly sat calmly watching television whilst his wife lay upstairs unconscious with gruesome head injuries.

The woman was rushed to Hospital Santa Ana, which is very close to the said street, and then almost immediately transferred to the main hospital in Granada (Traumatologia). By 16.00h she was in the operating theatre.

The couple had been together for twelve years but the relationship had been on the rocks for quite a few years, it seems. In fact, today was to be the day for their divorce hearing.

Finally, according to one neighbour, the victim, Araceli, used to lock herself into her bedroom at night. The reason that she hadn’t moved out was because the house was hers, left to her by her parents.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)