Briton jailed for 15 years over Dubai killing of ex-girlfriend

By Mail Foreign Service
Updated:


A British man who confessed to the Daily Mail that he battered his former lover to death in Dubai was jailed for 15 years yesterday.

But Mark Arnold's refusal to say how he disposed of Kerry Winter's body means the agony goes on for her family.

'We want him to show compassion and tell us where Kerry's body is. This will never end for us until that is done,' said Kurt Winter, the elder brother of Miss Winter, who disappeared in August 2008.

Mark Arnold

Kerry Winter pictured with her former boyfriend Mark Arnold on a boat trip down the Amazon. Arnold has been sentenced to 15 years in jail

He had hoped that Arnold, 43, would get a death sentence because under Dubai law a victim's family can spare the killer's life.

Mr Winter said they would have saved him from execution if he had revealed where her body was.

Now the family can only hope that Arnold, from Stoke-on-Trent, will one day reveal his secret.

'Arnold killed my sister but has refused to admit to what he did with her body,' said Mr Winter, 43, of Johannesburg. 'We hope now he will tell us what he did with her so we can give her some dignity.'

His mother, Carol, added: 'I don't know what he's done with her. I just hope he will tell me.'

Arnold, a manager for an interior design firm in Dubai, had been in a five-year relationship with Miss Winter, 36, who worked for a conference and exhibitions company.

Mark Arnold and Kerry Winter

Death in Dubai: Mark Arnold and former lover Kerry Winter in happier times before her death

She ended it in May 2008 and her family claimed that Arnold began harassing her.

He was arrested shortly after her disappearance. Weeks later he contacted the Mail from prison to say that he and Miss Winter had argued, during which he struck her with a stick.

He said he took her to his car to clean the blood from her wounds and they both fell asleep. When he awoke she was dead.

He took Miss Winter's body out to sea in his boat and dumped it overboard, he said.

He flew to Britain two days after her disappearance but returned to Dubai three days later and was arrested.

Arnold told the Mail he was confessing because rumours were circulating that he had battered Miss Winter to death with a baseball bat in a planned attack, but in fact she had died because of '30 seconds of madness'.

He later retracted his confession, saying: 'I wish I knew where she was. I'm innocent and want to prove it.'

Prosecutors alleged Arnold disposed of Miss Winter's body at sea using his yacht, but Mr Winter said he suspected his sister's remains had been buried on a building site.

The Foreign Office said it would continue to provide Arnold with consular assistance.

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