Ibiza killing: Mitchell Loveridge guilty of manslaughter

A Welshman has been convicted of killing a club promoter on the Spanish island of Ibiza four years ago.

Mitchell Loveridge, 26, of Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was convicted of the manslaughter of Harry Kingsland, 21, of Solihull, west Midlands.

He had gone on trial charged with the murder of Mr Kingsland after hitting him, but was acquitted by a jury of a deliberate killing.

The sentence will be delivered in writing at a later date.

A state prosecutor and a private prosecutor acting for Mr Kingsland's family said after the nine-strong jury's decision at a court in Palma, Majorca, they wanted a four-year sentence for Loveridge.

Loveridge's lawyer urged the judge to sentence his client to the minimum one-year term.

Giving evidence on the first day of the trial Loveridge told the court he hit Mr Kingsland in self-defence on 18 July, 2018, during a drunken altercation in a San Antonio flat after being attacked.

He denied assaulting him as he lay convulsing on the floor.

After lawyers' closing speeches on Wednesday he apologised to Mr Kingsland's parents.

State prosecutors had wanted an 18-year jail sentence for Loveridge at the trial's start, and prosecutors acting for Mr Kingsland's parents sought 25 years if he was convicted of murder.

In pre-trial indictments and opening court speeches both said Loveridge mercilessly attacked Mr Kingsland as he lay on the ground.

They said Mr Kingsland had been knocked out by a punch to the head in an attempt to stop him breaking up two people rowing.

Loveridge was arrested after jumping from the second-floor flat and remanded in prison in Spain for more than six months before being freed on bail on 30 January, 2019.

He was remanded again last year but bailed before the start of the trial.

Mr Kingsland, one of seven siblings and a Tae Kwon Do world champion by the age of 10, was living and working away for the first time after taking up his job in San Antonio.

Mr Kingsland's mother Julie said last year: "Harry was a happy go-lucky, ambitious young man whose muscles, love of sport and charming nature landed him friends wherever he went.

"He was so excited to be moving to Ibiza, it was his first experience of working abroad and he had dreams of many more to come.

"He had always wanted to work abroad and worked two jobs to raise the money to go to Ibiza, his favourite, happy place. For the trip to have ended in such tragic circumstances is indeed heart-breaking."