Ten years in prison for hacking man to death with machete outside Costa del Sol pub

Melvyn, the 57-year-old Dutchman accused of killing a compatriot with a machete after an argument in a Torremolinos pub, has been found guilty of the crime by a jury. Although no sentence has yet been handed down by the court in Malaga, there is an agreement between the legal teams, who have requested a ten-year sentence.

The defendant testified last Monday and pleaded guilty to the attack. He said there had been an argument at the Heineken Corner pub, a bar mostly frequented by Dutch expats in the La Carihuela area of the Costa del Sol resort.

Melvyn confessed that after the argument, during a street fight outside, he struck the victim, a 50-year-old man known as Cornelis, or Cees, with a machete. Melvyn told the victim's family, who were present at the trial, that he was very sorry for what happened.

The defendant, whose case was handled by the lawyer Antonio Mazuecos, has already paid the victim's family 96,020 euros as part of the compensation for civil liability. The Prosecutor's Office has estimated the full amount as being 400,000 euros (100,000 euros for the wife and for each of Cees' three children).

The Prosecutor's Office has taken into account the compensation payment of 96,020 euros and has reduced its request for a sentence from 13 to ten years.

A video recorded by a security camera was key to the trial. It showed how the fight and the subsequent death of Cees unfolded on the morning of 25 May 2022.

The incident was sparked after Melvyn apparently made obscene comments, according to witnesses, to some underage girls. Cees reproached him, saying, “You are a dirty man, they could be your daughters.” The pair faced up to each other inside the pub, although the owner of the premises separated them.

Later, Melvyn said that he was going home. Instead he headed to his vehicle in a car park in La Carihuela, from which he took a machete that he had stored in the boot and returned to the pub. At that moment, Cees went out to smoke and the fight that would ultimately lead to his death broke out.