The suspect in the murder of Lisa Jane Lyttle, her husband Warren, is adamant that she died as a result of “a sex game which went wrong” in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The 49-year-old victim, who used to fly back and forth between Palma and Kilburn, London, where her 19-year-old daughter lives, landed in Palma on Thursday. She had a return ticket booked for Wednesday. The couple have owned an apartment in the Siesta block in Costa de la Calma for the past ten years and that is where she died early on Saturday morning.
50-year-old Warren Lyttle appeared before the on-duty judge, José Castro, on Sunday, having previously not made a statement to police. His wife’s strangulation came about, he claimed, because of a sadomasochistic game that went out of control. He repeated this during another court hearing this morning, with his lawyers pleading involuntary homicide. But this claim has been disputed by Guardia Civil investigators, who presented “irrefutable” evidence to the court, maintaining that the death occurred following a heated row over money.
Lyttle has been remanded in custody without bail, while the Guardia have also been in contact with Scotland Yard.
It was Warren Lyttle who contacted the emergency services, apparently saying that he had strangled his wife with a mobile-phone charger cable. Today's autopsy revealed that the victim apparently did not put up a fight or try to defend herself, and forensic scientists have revealed that the victim had been apparently dead for a number of hours before the call was made at 3.20 am.
As the case continues, the teenage daughter is flying out to Majorca to help the police with their investigation.