Expat boss strangled and stabbed his wife to death
A WEALTHY Briton confessed to killing his wife at the start of his Costa del Sol murder trial yesterday – but immediately claimed he could not remember strangling and stabbing her to death after sex.
Dad-of-two Geoffrey Elton, 57, insisted he was mad not bad following his confession seconds after he appeared in the witness box.
The computer programmer told a court in Malaga he lashed out after being humiliated in front of neighbours by Gloria Tornay, his headteacher wife of 33 years following a “mutual” decision to divorce.
Horrific
But the expat claimed he had no recollection of forcing their son Alonso, then 15, out of their £560,000 home in Estepona before stabbing the 58-year-old between 11 and 16 times.
Prosecutor Francisco Javier Urquia Perez is seeking a 14-year prison sentence for the killer if convicted of murder.
He said: “Not only did he commit this horrific crime but he had the gall to pretend he was mentally ill.”
Mr Perez said methadone and morphine was found in “clean-living” Gloria’s body. He said: “Geoffrey Elton drugged her to reduce her ability to defend herself.
“He stabbed her so many times the handle on one of the knives was embedded on her skin. He shut off the electricity, threw the landline and three mobiles out of the house and forced Alonso outside to increase his chances of killing her.
“This man wants you to believe he was apparently mad when he did it. I say he did it because Gloria wanted a divorce. He lived off his wife and lived very well. I say he had planned it all before he went ahead with his vile crime.”
Elton, who also used to own a holiday home in Florida with his wife, has been held in prison since the March 9, 2019 killing. He confessed moments after his lawyer Juan Antonio Lopez Alvarez said: “He is dangerous but I want my client placed in a secure psychiatric centre, not jail, before he is expelled to the UK.”
Alonso, now 18, was left screaming as his mum was attacked and his dad’s “deliberate” attempt to slow down the emergency services.
Gloria died after going into hypovolemic shock from blood loss.
Elton told the court that despite claims that their plans to divorce were mutual, he insisted they had regular sex – including on the day of the killing.
He said in a rambling court address that he believed the police were bugging his phone and Gloria and her family were spying on him with the help of a friend at the Jordanian Embassy.
The trial continues.