A Spanish man convicted of murdering his girlfriend after she rejected his marriage proposal on a popular television show was sentenced to 21 years in jail Friday.
The court in the eastern city of Alicante sentenced Ricardo Navarro to 19 years behind bars for the fatal stabbing of his Russian girlfriend, Svetlana Orlova, and another two years for "habitual" physical abuse of the woman during their four-year relationship.
The Spaniard was also ordered to pay 300,000 euros ($377,500) in compensation to the victim's young son from another relationship and 30,000 euros to her mother.
During the trial Navarro maintained his innocence and denied being at his former girlfriend's apartment building on the day she was found with her throat cut at the entrance of her home.
But several of Orlova's neighbours testified that they saw him there that day. Police also found traces of her blood on the patio of Navarro's parents' house.
The stabbing came four days after a weeping Navarro, wearing a blue shirt and tie, kneeled before Orlova, 30, and presented her with a wedding ring on daytime talk show "Diario de Patricia" which regularly draws two million viewers.
"You are everything for me, without you I am nothing. I want to live with you forever," he said during the show taped and broadcast November 14 on private channel Antena 3, just four days before the murder.
Orlova looked on in silence as the man, who was also 30 at the time, made his proposal, saying only "no" when the show's host pressed her for a reply.
The stabbing led Spain's socialist government to reach a deal with private television broadcasters to improve the way they cover violence against women.
Under the deal, private televisions stations must mention a 24-hour telephone hotline number every time they report on a case of domestic violence.
They are also now required to mention the court sentences handed out in every case of domestic violence they report on in order to reinforce the idea that it is not a crime that goes unpunished.
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