A British man accused of strangling
his girlfriend to death in a jealous rage while on holiday in the Canary
Islands has been found guilty of her murder.
Christopher
Chittock, 38, was convicted of killing Sarah Shields by a jury of nine
at the Provincial Court in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
The divorced father-of-one savagely
beat and strangled the 23-year-old on a beach on the holiday island of
Gran Canaria after finding text messages from an ex-boyfriend on her
phone, the court heard.
Throttled: Sarah Shields (right) was beaten and
strangled by her jealous boyfriend Christopher Chittock (left) on
holidays before he flew back to Britain alone
The 38-year-old then dumped her naked body in the sea, which was found floating in the water the following morning.
Chittock had denied murder and
claimed that Ms Shields had left him for another British holidaymaker
called Jason before she died.
His fit of jealousy on July 6 2010
began after he discovered messages exchanged between Ms Shields and
ex-boyfriend William Newham, the jury heard.
Calling her a 'w****', he punched her
repeatedly in the bedroom of the holiday apartment where they were
staying in the popular resort of Mogan.
He then dragged her in the dark to a
deserted beach, punched her to the ground, banged her head against a
rock and strangled her to death.
Before burning her clothes, he dumped her body in the sea, where it was found the following morning.
The engineer then flew back to the home he shared with Ms Shields in Ipswich, Suffolk.
Chris Chittock, pictured during his trial, could now face up to 25 years in jail for the murder of his young girlfriend
On trial: Chris Chittock, 38, denied murdering Sarah Shields but was arrested just days after he flew back after killing her
In a desperate attempt to cover up his crime, he kept his girlfriend's phone and sent texts to her family pretending to be her.
But Chittock had been spotted with scratches
on his face by another British holidaymaker sharing their apartment
complex, the court heard.
The tourist said said he saw ‘fight’
marks on the engineer's chin and eye 24 hours after he had spotted a
woman's body floating in the water from his room.
Nicholas Atkinson told Chittock's
murder trial he saw the engineer eating alone without girlfriend of
eight-months Sarah Shields the day after the gruesome July 7, 2010
discovery.
He said: ‘I was sat about a metre away
from him in the restaurant at the apartments and clearly saw nail
scratches on the left side of his face by his chin and another mark on
his eye.
‘It looked to me as if he had been a fight. It was the day after the body that turned out to be Sarah's was found.
‘I'd seen the body floating in the sea near our apartment the previous morning after being woken up by my girlfriend.
Denial: Accused Chris Chittock was shown evidence by the court clerk during the trial
‘It was moving from right to left in
the water. At first I thought I saw the legs moving but then realized it
was just the waves.’
A European Arrest Warrant was issued and he was arrested three days after
returning alone to their home at the end of their
two-week holiday.
Chittock denied murder and claimed he
last saw Sarah, a Katie Price fan who dreamed of becoming a lingerie
model, when she left him for a mystery man called Jason she met on
holiday the week before she was found dead.
Her ex-boyfriend William Newham told
the jury of four men and five women trying Chittock at Las Palmas
Provincial Court he had exchanged intimate text messages with Sarah
after they split in 2007.
She sent him one message from Gran
Canaria telling him she was sunbathing topless to which he replied: ‘I
wouldn't mind seeing you.’
The court was told another she sent
while she was still alive read: ‘It would be good if you were here. It's
not the same with Chris,’.
'I'm going to miss my dog': Chittock burned Miss
Shields's belongings but kept her phone to message her friends and
family pretending she was alive
Mr Newham said a message he received
from Sarah's phone the day after she was found dead when Chittock was
allegedly sending her friends and family fake texts, read: ‘Leave me
alone, I'm happy now, I've moved on.’
Fighting back tears, he told the court: ‘I thought the way the text message was worded was odd.
‘The grammar and spelling didn't seem like the normal message Sarah would send.
‘I subsequently took a call from
Sarah's brother Paul asking me if I had seen her because she hadn't
returned home from her holiday.
‘I found out she had died when I spoke to a British police officer.’
The jury was shown pictures of blood
later identified as Sarah's on large stones Chittock allegedly smashed
her head on after breaking her nose with a flurry of punches.
Traces of blood containing Sarah's and Chittock's DNA were found on a mattress in their room during a police search.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued and he was detained in September 2010 before being extradited to Spain.
A local CID chief, who was not named
in court, said the defendant was arrested in Britain after they had
identified Sarah's body using a DNA sample sent to them by her mum
Angela.
He now faces up to 25 years in jail.
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