A Spanish kung fu teacher stands accused of two murders, police said today, after a prostitute he allegedly assaulted died of her injuries and bones discovered in his gymnasium turned out to be the remains of another woman.
Police in the northern city of Bilbao broke into 47-year-old Juan Carlos Aguilar's gymnasium's Zen4, on Sunday after a neighbour reported hearing screams.
Inside, they found a badly injured 29-year-old Nigerian prostitute. She lay in a coma in a hospital until today morning when she died, police said.
The martial arts instructor appeared before a judge today on suspicion of murdering the Nigerian.
But in a search of the gymnasium at the weekend, officers also discovered bones, which have now been identified as those of a 40-year-old Colombian woman, a police spokesman said.
Aguilar, who set up a so-called Ocean of Tranquility monastery, boasted he was the first Western master of the Shaolin school of kung fu, a three-time world champion and eight-time Spanish champion, according to the Spanish media.
But his claims of kung fu championship success and even his boast of being a Shaolin master have been denied by martial arts officials speaking to the Spanish press.
Bilbao city councillors agreed on a joint statement condemning the attack and expressing their "shock" at the police's discovery of evidence pointing to the previous alleged murder.
They called on the courts to act swiftly and firmly in cases of violence against women and urged the city's residents to help battle such crimes by reporting them to police.
The city called a rally for Wednesday against such violence.
