SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 17 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced Thomas Handrick to a reviewable permanent prison sentence for the murder of his eldest son, 10 years old, by stoning in a cave in Adeje.
The magistrate thus considers the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and also sentences Handrick to 23 years in prison for the murder of his wife and another 16 years for the attempted murder of the youngest son, seven years old, who fled the scene.
In addition, he must compensate the parents of his wife with 150,000 euros and his youngest son with another 210,000 euros and he is imposed 30 years of supervised freedom and the prohibition of approaching his son at a distance of less than 500 meters.
The sentence, made public this Thursday and which had the guilty verdict of the jury court for the crime of murder, considers it proven that Handrick killed his wife after a fatal attack with a stone of more than eight kilos that crushed his skull, and repeated the action with his eldest son after a dispute between the two when trying to defend himself.
To commit the acts, Handrick took his family to a remote area in the upper part of Adeje on a ten-kilometer ‘walk’, with a drop of 1,300 meters and intentionally so that they could not receive help and the younger brother, Jonas , 7 years old, who managed to escape from the cave, wandered for almost two hours through the mountains until he was located in Taucho.
The ruling adds that, after witnessing that his father assaulted his mother and brother, “he decided to flee the place, leaving the accused, in the belief that he would not survive, given his ignorance of
a narrow and lonely land.
The judge states that Handrick’s attack on his wife occurred “suddenly, quickly, unexpectedly and brutally” and when she was accompanied by her children on the excursion, it takes away the possibility of her fleeing.
In addition, he sees “unfeasible” that he may have suffered a transitory mental disorder as the defense alleged because there is no room for “uncontrolled impulses” based on his depressive picture derived from incapacity for work and taking medication.
An appeal can be filed against the ruling before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC).
The Prosecutor’s Office disagrees with the 16-year sentence for attempted murder and is considering appealing.
