A 24-year-old father has allegedly killed his two-year-old son’s speech therapist in Valencia, Spain, after returning from a cigarette break to find the toddler with his trousers down and no nappy on in the clinician’s office.
The suspect, named locally as David G.S., turned himself in to police at a station in Burjassot with bloodied hands and told officers he had killed his son’s “abuser.” According to investigators, he had briefly stepped outside the clinic to smoke and returned to find his toddler in a partially undressed state. He allegedly confronted the 32-year-old speech therapist and demanded to see security camera footage from inside the clinic, but the man refused.
Witnesses who overheard the row reportedly told investigators the father shouted: “Either you show me the cameras or I’ll kill you.” He then allegedly slit the therapist’s throat with a knife he was carrying. After the attack, he dropped his son off at their home on the outskirts of Valencia before walking into the police station to confess.
Officers rushed to the clinic and found the victim lying in a pool of blood. The area was cordoned off and forensic experts carried out an inspection of the scene. A post-mortem examination is due to take place and is expected to confirm that the speech therapist died from a slash wound to the neck which caused hypovolemic shock and a loss of more than 20 per cent of his body’s blood volume.
It is not yet clear whether the suspect will appear before an investigating judge today or following a second night in police custody. He is expected to be remanded to a local prison following his court appearance, which will take place behind closed doors in line with standard Spanish legal procedure.
The killing comes amid a series of knife attacks in Spain in recent weeks. Just one week ago, a British man in his sixties was stabbed to death at his home in La Alcaidesa, near Gibraltar, following what police described as an “extremely violent” altercation involving a machete and a hammer. He was found in a pool of blood at around 4.30pm on 6 June. An Algerian man in his twenties is under police guard at a hospital after allegedly jumping from a nearby window in a suspected suicide attempt following the killing. He is believed to have been living with the victim for around three years.
A month earlier, a knifeman was filmed slicing a woman’s throat in broad daylight near Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium.
