Irish men sentenced to 11 years for killing in Spain

Two Irish men have been sentenced to 11 years each in prison after being convicted of killing a British expat at his Costa del Sol home.

A jury at a court in Malaga returned a formal guilty verdict on Tuesday after the pair confessed to the attack on London-born builder Paul Feathers (31).

Dubliners Wayne Lennon (38) and Brian McConville (30) admitted punching, kicking and stabbing their victim to death at the start of their trial on Monday after agreeing a plea bargain with a state prosecutor.

The accusation against them was downgraded from murder to the less serious charge of homicide. The one-day trial went ahead despite the Irish mens’ confessions because of the seriousness of the crime and the length of the jail term the defendants were facing.

The court heard how Mr Feathers was beaten around the head and body and stabbed 44 times in the arms, legs, neck and back with a kitchen knife.

Experts said the punches and kicks to his head caused a brain haemorrhage and led to his death. Police who gave evidence described the attack as “torture”.

Mr Feathers’s girlfriend – who was made a protected witness but did not show for Monday’s trial – identified the men who killed him during a row over a failed business deal as McConville and Lennon.

The court heard the Irish men attacked their victim because they blamed him for the loss of a car he was preparing for the transport of an “illicit substance”. Tthe vehicle was towed away by police after a neighbour spotted Mr Feathers trying to change the number plate, the court was told.

The Irish pair fled Spain after the April 21st, 2010 killing, sparking an international manhunt. Lennon was arrested on the Portuguese Algarve in May 2011 and McConville detained in the Netherlands two years later. Judge Rafael Linares sentenced the men immediately after hearing the jury's verdict.