AN EX-SOLDIER faces up to three decades behind bars after being convicted of murdering his Irish girlfriend at a Spanish hotel.

Keith Byrne, 34, was found guilty of the shocking 2023 murder after three days of jury deliberations.

He was found to have strangled Kirsty Ward to death with a hair straightener power cord after she said she was leaving him.

The former soldier from the Irish Guards and Parachute Regiment asserted during his trial in Tarragona that the 36-year-old mother-of-one had taken her own life in their hotel.

But he described himself as a “respectful and intelligent” father who would never commit an act of domestic violence.

He also demonised Kirsty, claiming she could be “four people in one day” – especially after binging on alcohol and cocaine.

The trial judge announced he was retiring to consider his sentence after the jury’s decision late last night.

Jurors had begun their deliberations on Monday following the May 1 Bank Holiday.

However, Byrne is not expected to find out for nearly a month how much jail time he will be handed.

A private prosecutor representing Kirsty’s family is advocating for a 30-year prison term, while public prosecutor Javier Goimil recommended a 20-year sentence to the judge.

Goimil reduced his pre-trial sentencing request by one year, acknowledging Byrne’s prior alcohol and drug use as a mitigating factor, following the jury’s determination that he had “diminished cognitive and volitional faculties” at the time of Kirsty’s death.

The prosecutor, a domestic violence specialist, rubbished Byrne’s court claim that Kirsty died by suicide during his closing speech.

He claimed the ex-soldier had decided “You’re mine or you’re nobody’s” and strangled his girlfriend to death when she said she wanted out of the relationship.

Forensic evidence pointed to Kirsty being strangled from behind after “incapacitating herself” with alcohol and cocaine, he said.

He told the court: “Byrne has adapted his version of events of what happened in that timeframe nearly two years on in accordance with the evidence he’s learnt there is against him.

“He’s saying Kirsty tied a cable round her neck and attached it to the door knob but in the state she was in it would have been impossible for her to do that and there’s nothing showing there was a knot in the cable.

“What’s occurred here is a violent and painful death, a strangulation from behind where someone is pulling from the front to the back. This was not a suicide.”

He added that she had not left a note for her relatives and had bought a plane ticket back to her hometown Dublin for July 4.

“Kirsty’s relationship with Byrne was very toxic, very intense and very emotional,” he said.

“She decided to end it during the week they stayed at the hotel in Salou and her partner couldn’t accept that decision.”

He further said that the volume of alcohol Kirsty had drunk ahead of her death would have impacted significantly on her ability to defend herself.

Following his arrest in Spain it emerged that Byrne was was wanted in England by Royal Military Police for going absent without leave after he left for Ireland in 2017.

Byrne’s defence lawyer Jordi Cabre had been seeking acquittal for his client before the jury verdict – and asked the judge afterwards to hand down the “minimum sentence”.

Kirsty’s mum Jackie Ward called Byrne someone she “didn’t like” and “didn’t trust” on the first day of the trial.

She was asked when giving evidence if she thought her daughter could have died by suicide.

But she said: “She did everything for her son. She would never ever leave him. She would never do that to him.”