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Millionaire battered his daughter to death
A Westminster millionaire who battered his “beloved” baby daughter to death has been locked up indefinitely.
Insurance and banking executive Alberto Izaga fell into rapid mental decline after seeing the horror film Bug, an Old Bailey court heard.
He suddenly flipped at the £1 million apartment he shared with his wife Ligia, 35, and child Yanire, aged two, at Parliament View, by the Thames.
Izaga, 36, suffering from an acute psychotic and schizophrenic disorder, was cleared of murder by a jury who heard leading psychiatrists describe the family tragedy which unfolded last June.
The not guilty “by reason of insanity” verdict led to an order under the Mental Health Act being imposed by Judge Richard Hone, QC. He told Izaga, who has no memory of the killing: “No sentence I pass can ever match the sentence you will pass down on yourself.”
Izaga has a law degree and was on the board of the insurance firm Swiss Re.
He attacked his child in a frenzy and smashed her head on the floor of their home, while ranting about religion and death. Yanire died in hospital from fractures two days later.
David Perry, QC, defending, described Izaga as “an ordinary, hard-working, happy married man and father” until he was gripped by mental turmoil.
He said: “He never wanted to snuff out the life of the person he loved most.” |
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