A YouTube chef who murdered and dismembered his gay lover has been found guilty of premeditated murder and has been sentenced to life in prison in Thailand.
Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family, acknowledged dismembering the body of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, and disposing of the parts on land and at sea.
Both men were vacationing together on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August last year, an area famous for its monthly Full Moon beach parties, attracting travellers from around the world for all-night raves.
The Koh Samui provincial court issued an initial sentence of death for Sancho but commuted it to life imprisonment due to his co-operation during the trial, colonel Paisan Sangthep, deputy commander of the Surat Thani provincial police, said.
The convicted man is the son of Rodolfo Sancho Aguirre, a prominent Spanish actor, and Silvia Bronchalo, who has also worked as an actor. Both parents are 49 years old and attended Thursday’s court session.
At his trial on the island of Samui, Sancho claimed he got into a fight with Mr Arrieta for allegedly trying to sexually assault him. He said that Arrieta fell as they scuffled and hit his head on a bathtub, losing consciousness and dying.
He had pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder.
For the charge of concealing or damaging a body, he received a four-month prison sentence, reduced to two months for acknowledging the act, said Mr Paisan.
He had also pleaded not guilty to the charge of destroying another person’s documents – the victim’s passport – for which he received a two-year prison term.
The elements of the case: violent death on a holiday island, the celebrity connections and the lurid details; attracted huge coverage in Spanish media.
HBO produced a Spanish-language documentary on the events.
The case came to light when trash collectors found what the Bangkok Post newspaper described as a sawed-off pelvis and intestines weighing about five kilogrammes in a fertiliser sack at a garbage dump.
Shortly after that, Sancho reported to police that Mr Arrieta was missing, and police then gathered evidence linking the two men that led them to detain and interrogate him.
Police established a narrative, claiming to the press that Sancho had confessed to the murder and saying he had planned it because Mr Arrieta threatened to disgrace him and his family by revealing their alleged sexual relationship.
Sancho, through his father and his lawyers, said that was a distorted version of what he told police, and denied having a sexual relationship with Mr Arrieta.
