Partner insists Kirsty took her own life

Man says mum, 36, strangled herself in Spanish hotel room

- NICOLA DONNELLY

AN Irishman suspected of killing his girlfriend while on holiday in Spain has continued to insist on his innocence.

He was arrested by police after Kirsty Ward, 36, was found dead at the Hotel Magnolia in the Costa Dorada resort on July 2.

The mother-of-one was located in a second-floor corridor outside her hotel room after a 999 call from the hotel. She had been strangled.

The man appeared before a Spanish court last week and has been remanded in prison while investigations continue.

Now, in an interview with the Olive Press in Spain from a prison in Catalunya, her partner - whom we are not identifying - has told how he had found her lying prone with a ligature around her neck.

He also revealed that Ms Ward, whom he had been dating since last November had "serious mental health problems" and had tried to kill herself on "various" previous occasions.