Tony Alexander King, a British man who had settled on the Costa del Sol, was convicted in Málaga of two murders: that of Rocío Wanninkhof, 19, in October 1999, and that of Sonia Carabantes, 17, in August 2003. The Audiencia Provincial de Málaga sentenced him to 36 years for the second killing in November 2005 and to 19 years for the first after a jury verdict in December 2006. Spanish press reports also gave seven years for an attempted sexual assault in Benalmádena in 2001.
The case is remembered as much for what happened before King was identified as for the killings themselves. Rocío Wanninkhof's death had already produced a conviction: in September 2001 a jury found a different person, Dolores Vázquez, guilty of it and she was sentenced to 15 years. That conviction was annulled in February 2002. When King's DNA was linked to both killings in September 2003, the proceedings against her were closed and she was cleared. El Debate later described the Vázquez case as one of the great judicial errors in Spanish history.
King was born in London. A report on his 2005 trial said he turned 40 that August. In 2003 the Costa del Sol News reported that he had been known in England under the surname Bromwich.
He had previous convictions in England. The Olive Press reported in 2006 that he had served ten years in a British prison before moving to the Costa del Sol and starting a new life under the name King, and El Español wrote in 2021 that he settled in Spain after serving his sentence. The Olive Press reported in 2006 that British police had warned the Spanish authorities about him, and that two killings took place before he was arrested.
By 2003 King lived in Alhaurín el Grande. The Costa del Sol News described him as a bartender who shared a home with his Spanish partner and her children, and said neighbors found him quiet and solitary. He had been married earlier; his former wife later gave evidence at both of his Spanish murder trials.
Rocío Wanninkhof was 19 and lived in La Cala de Mijas, on the coast of Málaga province. She was killed in October 1999. Her mother, Alicia Hornos, and the rest of the family took an active part in the case for years afterward: the Olive Press reported in 2006 that they paid for a private investigation, and in 2011 her mother asked the court in Fuengirola to look again at claims made by King.
Euro Weekly News reported that a reward of 25 million pesetas was offered for information. A DNA profile from the Guardia Civil inquiry was not identified until King's arrest in 2003, and the head of the Guardia Civil told the 2006 trial that there "could have been errors" in the original investigation, the Olive Press reported.
In September 2000 the Guardia Civil arrested Dolores Vázquez, a former partner of Rocío's mother. Accounts differ on the date of the arrest: the Costa del Sol News and El Español put it in September 2000, while Euro Weekly News gave October 7, 2000. She was tried by a jury, and in September 2001 the jury found her guilty of murder by a majority, with two of the nine jurors dissenting, according to El Español. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay compensation to the family.
The conviction did not hold. In February 2002 the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía annulled it because the verdict had not been properly reasoned, and a new trial was ordered. EFE reported in 2015 that she was released on bail pending the new trial and that the Supreme Court upheld that decision. El Español wrote in 2025 that bail was set at 30,000 euros. She had by then spent 17 months in custody, which Diario de León and El Español give as 519 days.
The new trial never took place. After King's arrest in September 2003 and his statements to the court, the proceedings against her were suspended, and she was cleared. Her case file was annulled, according to the Olive Press in March 2009, which reported that she was "completely absolved" of the crime.
Sonia Carabantes was 17 and from Coín, in Málaga province. She was killed in August 2003, four years after Rocío Wanninkhof. Her parents took part in the trial as private accusers, and the court awarded them damages of 150,000 euros each. A related Diario de León headline said the family would seek state responsibility for the failure to monitor King.
The charge in her case was murder, with other charges.
The Guardia Civil arrested King on Thursday, September 18, 2003, in Alhaurín el Grande. Diario de León reported that his partner had given information to the Guardia Civil's judicial police before the arrest. The Costa del Sol News reported that he was held at the prison at Alhaurín de la Torre, and that a second British man was arrested in Nerja as a possible accessory to the Carabantes killing.
The forensic work that tied him to both cases rested on DNA. According to Diario de León, a genetic profile taken from items in his home matched samples from the Carabantes investigation, and it also matched samples from the Wanninkhof investigation, which had gone unidentified since 1999. El Español reported in 2021 that DNA taken in the Carabantes case matched a sample from the earlier case, and that the Guardia Civil then identified King.
King confessed to both killings in the days after his arrest. The Costa del Sol News reported that he told investigators he had acted alone, and that he had written letters to the victims' mothers in which he apologized. EFE reported in 2015 that he confessed before the judge. Later he changed his account more than once. The Costa del Sol News said at the 2005 trial that he had by then given three conflicting versions of events.
The second man, R. G., was a friend and former employer of King. He was held as a possible accessory in the Carabantes case and released. The Costa del Sol News wrote in December 2006 that he was released without charge because the period in which an accomplice could be charged had expired.
King was tried for the killing of Sonia Carabantes at the Audiencia Provincial de Málaga. The trial ended on October 31, 2005. About 35 witnesses gave evidence, among them investigators, forensic experts and King's former wife, the Costa del Sol News reported.
King denied killing her. In court he offered an account that differed from what he had told investigators, and he named R. G. and Dolores Vázquez as people involved. The court did not accept it. It described the evidence against him as circumstantial but of great weight and found aggravating circumstances.
The sentence was handed down on a Tuesday in mid-November 2005; Diario de León's report is dated November 16. The court sentenced King to 36 years in total for murder, with the other charges. The Costa del Sol News noted that this was two years more than the public prosecutor had asked for and eight years fewer than the private prosecution had asked for. Diario de León added that under the Penal Code the maximum time he could serve was 30 years, and that the judgment could be appealed to the Tribunal Supremo by way of casación. El Español wrote in 2021 that the sentence was ratified by the Supremo, without giving the date of that ruling.
In June 2006 the same court sentenced King to a further seven years for an attempted sexual assault in Benalmádena in 2001. The Costa del Sol News reported that the woman had recognized him on television after his arrest in 2003 and later identified him in a police line-up. No suspect had been identified in 2001. This was a conviction separate from the two murders and is not part of them.
The Wanninkhof case took longer to reach trial. In June 2006 the judge refused to admit about a dozen further witnesses, among them Vázquez, whom King's defense and the victim's family had asked to call and whom the public prosecutor opposed.
By November 30, 2006, the trial was under way in Málaga before a jury of nine, with Judge José María Muñoz Caparrós presiding. On the first day King called the judge, the prosecutor and the Guardia Civil's biologists criminals, was removed from the courtroom and the hearing was adjourned. The head of the Guardia Civil told the court that errors could have been made in the original investigation. King's former wife testified, and the Olive Press reported that she went to the police only after the Carabantes killing in 2003. The prosecution sought 20 years for murder and six years and nine months for attempted sexual assault.
The jury returned its verdict in December 2006 after a day and a half of deliberation, according to the Costa del Sol News; the Olive Press said 13 hours. It found King guilty of the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof and not guilty of the second charge, attempted sexual assault. It rejected any mitigating circumstance of insanity or mental disorder. The jury also indicated that other people may have been involved, and El Español reported in 2021 that it voted seven to two that King had not acted alone. The Guardia Civil investigators and the public prosecutor maintained that he had acted alone. No one else was charged.
The sentence was 19 years, according to El Español, Euro Weekly News and a January 2011 Olive Press report. A December 2006 Olive Press report had given 36 years for this killing, a figure the later reports contradict. In February 2007 the Olive Press described King as serving 55 years in all.
Dolores Vázquez asked the Ministry of Justice for compensation for the 17 months she had spent in custody. The Olive Press reported in March 2009 that the ministry had offered 120,000 euros and that she was seeking 4 million. EFE reported in 2015 that reports from the General Council of the Judiciary and the Ministry of the Interior had opposed recognizing a judicial error. The Audiencia Nacional rejected her claim in October 2012. On July 22, 2015, the Tribunal Supremo rejected it as well, holding that she had used the wrong procedural route; the court said that her innocence was not in question, and one magistrate, Margarita Robles, dissented. El Español reported in 2021 that the Constitutional Court declined to admit her case.
Diario de León noted in May 2026 that she had recently received a tribute and the Medalla a la Promoción de los Valores de Igualdad, and described her conviction as a judicial error. El Español reported in January 2021 that a Netflix documentary on the case was due that year.
King was held at Alhaurín de la Torre after his arrest, and the Olive Press placed him at Albolote prison in Granada in February 2007. By 2011 the Olive Press and Euro Weekly News reported him at Herrera de la Mancha prison in Ciudad Real, and El Español wrote in January 2021 that he was in its maximum-security unit, largely isolated.
Accounts disagree on when he could be released. El Español reported in 2021 that his release was due in 2033; Euro Weekly News in 2019 and El Español in March 2025 both stated that he would not be due for release until 2059. El Español's March 2025 article listed his sentences as 19 years, 36 years and seven years.
King has disputed parts of the verdicts. El Español reported that on December 25, 2008, he wrote a 68-page letter to the European Court of Human Rights in which he denied the murder, said his confession had been coerced, said the DNA evidence had been falsified and blamed others. In 2011, in two letters addressed to Rocío's mother, he wrote that he had taken part in the October 1999 killing for money, played a limited part, and blamed R. G. and Vázquez. The Olive Press and Euro Weekly News both reported that, and that her mother asked the court in Fuengirola to investigate. The Málaga public prosecutor decided not to investigate, finding the letters contained nothing new, Euro Weekly News reported.
R. G. has never been convicted in connection with either killing. In December 2008 the Olive Press reported that police wanted to question him in an unrelated inquiry and believed he was abroad.
In February 2007 national police asked for permission to question King in prison about a separate unresolved case in Granada province. No charge against King was reported.
Proven by final judgments: the murder of Sonia Carabantes (36 years, Audiencia Provincial de Málaga, November 2005) and the murder of Rocío Wanninkhof (jury verdict December 2006, 19 years), together with the Benalmádena attempted sexual assault (seven years).
Not guilty: the jury found King not guilty of the second charge in the Wanninkhof trial, attempted sexual assault.
Not a finding of any court: King's accusations against R. G. and Vázquez. R. G. was arrested in 2003 as a possible accessory and released without charge. Vázquez's 2001 conviction was annulled in 2002, and the case against her was closed after 2003.
Contested: whether King acted alone. The jury indicated that others may have been involved; the Guardia Civil and the prosecutor maintained that he had acted alone.
Details that vary between reports: the date of Vázquez's arrest (September or October 2000); how long the jury deliberated (a day and a half, or 13 hours); the sentence for the Wanninkhof killing (19 years, or 36 in one early report); the year of King's release (2033 or 2059); how many months Vázquez spent in custody (17 months, or about seven in one 2025 report).
October 1999: Rocío Wanninkhof, 19, is killed in Mijas.
September 2000: Dolores Vázquez is arrested (one report gives October 7, 2000).
September 2001: a jury finds Vázquez guilty of the Wanninkhof murder; she is sentenced to 15 years.
February 2002: the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía annuls the conviction and orders a new trial; she is released.
August 2003: Sonia Carabantes, 17, is killed in Coín.
September 18, 2003: King is arrested at Alhaurín el Grande; DNA links the two cases; he confesses; proceedings against Vázquez are suspended and later closed.
October 31, 2005: the Carabantes trial ends at the Audiencia Provincial de Málaga.
Mid-November 2005: King is sentenced to 36 years for the Carabantes murder, with other charges.
June 2006: seven years for the 2001 Benalmádena attempted sexual assault.
By November 30, 2006: the Wanninkhof trial is under way.
December 2006: the jury finds King guilty of the Wanninkhof murder; later reports give 19 years.
February 2007: described as serving 55 years in all.
December 25, 2008: King's letter to the European Court of Human Rights.
March 2009: Vázquez described as fully cleared; compensation unresolved.
2011: King's letters to Rocío's mother; the prosecutor declines to investigate.
October 2012: Audiencia Nacional rejects Vázquez's compensation claim.
July 22, 2015: Tribunal Supremo rejects it.
January 2021: King reported at Herrera de la Mancha prison.
March 2025: still reported serving his sentences; release not before 2059 according to El Español.