Man jailed for life for the murder of Cristina Ortiz-Lozano in Southampton

A man has been jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Cristina Ortiz-Lozano.

At around 9.50pm on 21 September 2019, officers were called to a house in Spear Road, Southampton, to reports of a man attacking a woman with a knife. When they arrived, they found Cristina’s body lying on the kitchen floor, having received multiple stab wounds.

She was assessed by paramedics but sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

Cristina’s ex-boyfriend, Abdelaziz El Yechioui Ourzat, then aged 29, was located in the garden and taken to Southampton General Hospital where he was treated for stab wounds to his chest and other minor injuries.

El Yechioui Ourzat was subsequently arrested and charged with Cristina’s murder.

Despite admitting responsibility for Cristina’s death and entering a guilty plea to manslaughter at a previous hearing, El Yechioui Ourzat denied murdering her.

On Thursday, 18 February, after a three week trial at Winchester Crown Court, the jury unanimously convicted El Yechioui Ourzat, of White Star Place in Southampton of murder.

Ten months after Cristina’s death, her father, said “Every day at around 9pm, Cristina would call us to tell us about her day-to-day life and now that has become our worst time of the day.  It has emotionally destroyed us”.

“We welcomed Abdelaziz El Yechioui Ourzat as another member of our family, including him and making him part of our lives, to the extent that he told me that I was like his second father”.

“El Yechioui Ourzat knew how much we loved both of our daughters. I asked him to look after Cristina because we loved her very much”.

Following the sentence Detective Inspector Toby Elcock said “First and foremost, our thoughts remain with Cristina’s family and friends who have shown tremendous courage and dignity throughout the investigation and the trial.  The current pandemic has meant that they have had to remotely access the trial from Spain which has been challenging in itself.

“I welcome today’s sentence. El Yechioui Ourzat has been shown to be an extremely dangerous man whose abusive and jealous behaviour led him to take the life of a young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her.

“We worked closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to present a strong case to the jury and bring El Yechioui Ourzat to justice.

“I know today’s sentence will not bring Cristina back, but I hope it goes some way to give her family and friends some closure and a degree of comfort that justice has been done.”

Hampshire Constabulary is committed to tackling domestic abuse and bring perpetrators to justice. Together with our partners and local domestic abuse charities, we focus on support for victims and provide help to those leaving abusive relationships.

We also work with partners to reduce incidents of domestic abuse by helping to change the behaviour of perpetrators by referring them to partners who run specific perpetrator programmes.

We continue to work with regional and national colleagues and share good practice identify the best ways to tackle domestic abuse and safeguard victims.

Anyone who is facing abuse or harm should call 999. If you’re not in a position to speak press 55 and our controllers will know what to do. We are there for you, please call us if you need us in an emergency.

There are a range of support services on offer to those who are in an abusive relationship and need help, click on this link for details:

Domestic Abuse - Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner (hampshire-pcc.gov.uk)

You can also call Hampshire Domestic Abuse Service on 03300 165112 to get confidential advice.