A 35-year-old man was sentenced to 13 years behind bars for cruelly beating his female partner. The woman, who was aged 38, managed to run away, but died later in the hospital. She suffered bilateral rib fractures and spleen rupture with infiltration of blood in the tissue, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the young man periodically used verbal and physical violence against the woman, but the victim never complained to the police. The fatal beating occurred last October at a sheepfold where the man worked as a shepherd and lived together with the woman.

The man kicked and punched the woman in different parts of the body. She ran away and sought help from other persons. She died in the hospital the next day. The man didn’t admit his guilt, denying having ever beaten his partner.

The Cimișlia Court sentenced the man to 13 years in jail. The sentence is not yet final and can be challenged in the Comrat Appeals Court within 15 days.