A MAN convicted of beating the mother of his three children to death in Spain four years ago has been told the exact day he will walk free from prison in 11 years' time.

The news that Paul Hickey (32) will be released on 23 August 2020 after killing his girlfriend Celine Conroy (28) has angered the young mother's family, who believe they should never have agreed to accept a plea bargain.

"It wasn't worth it; I should have gone in there and made him get more," Sandra Conroy said of the court case in Elche, Spain last November when the deal was struck.

"I know if the jury had seen the tape with the kids he would have got more. It was the sorriest day for me."

Celine Conroy's family marked her birthday last Wednesday at her graveside four years after her violent death in the San Fulgencio resort.

Since the trial, her eldest child Paul (12) has undergone two separate surgeries on his ears and now faces the prospect of never having full hearing again.

His second operation, earlier this month, lasted seven-and-a-half hours. His family say they are unsure of his exact problem but knew something was wrong before last Christmas.

"We just noticed that he couldn't hear when we kept calling him. When he was talking he was shouting at us. I took him to the doctor and he gave me a note to go to Beaumont," said Sandra.

"We don't know whether he will end up with two hearing aids or not.

"He was supposed to go on holiday but now he can't go because it included canoeing and swimming and all that. But the other kids are all fine and great. Everyone else is fine."

Despite Paul's operations, the family said Hickey has made no effort to contact them and they have not seen a penny of the compensation awarded during the court case – €80,000 for the parents and €60,000 per child.

"We didn't get anything and didn't hear anything," said Sandra.

"It's blood money, he can keep it. But for the children if there was something there I would take it but nobody has told me anything about it.

"No one has mentioned to me about that or where the villa [where Celine was killed] went to. It was sold there before the court case.

"I was too upset with the court case and I wanted to go down to the villa to see it and ask the people in it if they knew what happened."

On his release Hickey will be barred from going anywhere near his children for a further 10 years.