The top court on Spain's Canary Islands confirmed a 39-year jail sentence passed earlier this year on a German man for a double murder and attempted murder.
The man, Thomas Handrick, from the central state of Saxony-Anhalt, was found guilty in February of the murder of his estranged wife and 10-year-old son while they were out hiking in April 2019 in the southern part of Tenerife, a popular destination with German tourists.
They were beaten to death with a heavy stone. The man's 7-year-old son escaped by running away.
The man can still appeal to Spain's highest court.
Wednesday's Canary Island court ruling changed only the verdict that the man had acted out of malice in murdering his elder son, but said this did not affect the sentence.
"Cruel" murders
The murders had been particularly cruel and, in the case of the woman, perpetrated in a spirit of malice, a requirement under Spanish law for a charge of murder.
The jury in the original trial did not accept the man's claim that he had been under the influence of medication and lacking full possession of his intellectual faculties, and thus not fully answerable for his actions.
