OUTRAGE!

PALMA

OUTRAGE burned across the island yesterday in response to the shocking death of 28-year-old Laura Gallego Negre whose battered body was found in a converted Palma lock-up garage she shared with her boyfriend.

The alarm was first raised at midnight on Saturday by the victim's boyfriend, a crack addict with a criminal record and a restraining order to stay away from another woman, who found a group of police at a burger bar near the scene of the crime in calle Can Barrera, Marratxi and told them that his girlfriend had suffered a motorbike accident and was in a bad way.

31 -year-old Hermenegildo Fernandez Salva, otherwise known by “El David” led police back to his lock up garage where they found the body of Laura Gallego.

Despite claims of a motorbike accident near the Son Banya shanty town and drugs den, a string of contradicting claims proved sufficient for the Guardia Civil to take David into custody as the prime suspect - he is due to appear before a preliminary hearing in Palma this morning. Yesterday he was under observation in Palma's Psychiatric Hospital.

The results of yesterday's autopsy revealed that the young woman died under “a rain of punches”.
According to forensic expert Juan Luis Poncela's results, “extreme violence” was used and that the body of the mother of a two-year-old was covered in cuts, bruises and fractures.

She also suffered a broken neck.
Laura had also been dead for at least 12 hours, her body was rigid when the Guardia Civil reached the scene, and parts of the crime scene and body had been cleaned of blood. Ana Negre, Laura's mother, yesterday revealed that, on the day of her daughter's death “she wanted to leave him and start a new life. “Laura had been telling me for days that she wanted to leave her boyfriend and kick her drugs habit, dedicate her time and life to her young boy.
Ana Negre also said that her daughter thought her boyfriend's name was David and that she had no idea Hermenegildo had a criminal record and restraining order. “If she had known he had been in trouble for domestic violence, she would have left him long ago,” the distraught mother added. “We had only met him a few times. All that we knew was he had been a boxer or something and was a nice lad. We had no idea he physically abused women.” Yesterday, women's right groups, local and central government condemned the killing of Laura.
Last night hundreds of people gathered in Marratxi in protest over the violent killing of the 28-year-old.
All the local neighborhood associations, political groups and members of Marratxi Council gathered to show their anger and outrage.
Marratxi Council will hold a minute's silence in memory of the victim today at midday and tonight in Palma, the women's rights group Lobby de Dones will be holding a mass rally in Plaza Juan Carlos at 8pm.

The central government delegate to the Balearics, Ramon Socias, expressed his “utter condemnation” of the murder yesterday and said that it is “a great shame that crimes like this continue to be carried out in modern society. We have to do all we can to bring an end to domestic violence,” he added.