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NEW GOLD RUSH
O LIVE P RESS I DIDN’T STRANGLE KIRSTY with sales up 88%
ments, such as accreditation or professional of at least three years. and among them experiencehaving this visa, it was By Alex Trelinski are key community MERICANS are coming “Prior to Valencia and Andalucia many Americans,” he added. work in Spain beto Spain for longer both its digital nomad difficult to rates were so high to per locations. as digital nomads and people are Spain launched making it cause the tax ing up an average of €2,837 “As with any big city, visa earlier this year, move and and there wasn’t a clear-cut imretire. than grew square metre. attracted to its job opportunities for foreigners to migration regime, other The number living in Spain while And their purchasing power grew and amenities,” said Alex In- easierin the country. allowed the same period, acservices firm work by 13% from 2019 to 2021, ‘interna- the ′golden visa’ that jumped the most in General Council of grim from financial The visa is tailored forapplicants you to move to Spain and work,” home sales to US buyers cording to the Chase Buchanan. teleworkers’ and word of mouth tional require- added Ingrim. by 88% from 2019 to 2022. the cash Notaries report. on “There is a strong a large expat must comply with a set of Americans also splash buyers, American buyers tend to focus for Valencia, with more than any other cough- urban areas like Madrid, while Danes, the apart from
Surge in buyers from US
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EXCLUSIVE: Former Queen’s guardsman insists he found ‘suicidal’ girlfriend dead at Catalan hotel
AN Irishman accused of killing his girlfriend while on holiday in Spain has insisted his total innocence. The former British soldier - who once guarded the Queen - told the Olive Press how he had found Kirsty Ward’s body lying prone with a ligature around her neck. Speaking from prison in Catalunya, Keith Byrne, 30, revealed his girlfriend had ‘serious mental health problems’ and had tried to kill herself on ‘various’ occasions. The former Irish Guard - who protected the royals at Windsor Castle and
EXCLUSIVE By Jon Clarke
Buckingham Palace for four years - insisted: “I try to protect lives, not take lives.” The salesman, from County Meath, had actually administered CPR in the doorway and not, as alleged, in the corridor of their hotel room in Salou. He, along with another hotel guest, a British tourist, tried to bring the mother-of-one back to life. The ex-soldier insists he had been at a beach bar all day, as verified by CCTV, and came back to find she had strangled herself with an electrical cord. He had returned to the room at the Hotel Magnolia to get his passport and suitcase, after they had argued and decided to split up. But when he got there the door ‘wouldn’t open’, as she was rigid and lying prone blocking the door from inside. “It was awful. Her eyes were grey and her lips were cold and blue,” he revealed by phone from the low security unit, near Barcelona. “I will never get this image out of
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my mind. “She had been dead for some time and was so cold. I never felt cold like that before. I just can’t get it out of my head,” he added. “I took the cord off and screamed for help and some British tourists next door rushed over and one took over and started giving her CPR as well.” Clearly upset, he continued: “Now I am being accused of killing her, but I have never been arrested in all my life. “I am stuck here away from my three children and it could take months to prove my innocence. Nobody knows for how long and there are no criminal charges yet,” he continued. His family meanwhile told the Olive Press that Kirsty, 36, had been suffering serious mental health issues for some years and was ‘on medication’. His sister Tara, 33, said Kirsty had a ‘borderline personality disorder’ and had ‘tried to kill herself a number of times’. “She had been an inpatient at a mental health facility in Dublin and was visiting as an outpatient every three weeks,” she revealed. “Things got so bad in Spain that Keith
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actually called me on the second day of the holiday saying he wanted to come home. “He said he couldn’t ‘do this anymore’ and was going to get an early flight. He said her drug addiction was too tough and she was drinking FROM LOVE: to tragedy - Kirsty with Keith on too much. He flight to Spain said she was ‘too high’ and he just couldn’t ‘calm with someone and they agreed it was her down’.” over.” The pair met in November, via a While Keith wanted them to split dating site, and moved in together up on ‘good terms’ and go home to‘within weeks’. gether, Kirsty had ‘other ideas’ and They fell ‘madly in love’ and at first stormed off. didn’t stop ‘laughing and joking’ and Keith spent the afternoon with a Gereven went on a skiing holiday with man expat called ‘Lars’ and eventually friends. went back to the hotel at 9.17pm to get But, after a couple of months, Kirsty his passport and bag. started to get ‘needy’ and ‘possessive’. “Fortunately video cameras can prove The holiday in Salou started badly all the timings, but he entered the howhen they rowed on the tel at 9.17pm and went up to the ninth second night about stay- floor, where the alarm was raised at ing out or going home 9.22pm,” insisted Tara. and she allegedly went “The police and paramedics were on off with another mys- the scene very quickly, but she was altery man. ready dead.” “Keith woke up on Sun- She continued: “There was literally day morning and she’d no time for Keith to have killed her. been out all night,” Evidence revealed to us in court on claimed Tara. “She adContinues on Page 2 mitted she had been
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