Barcelona  - Jaime Martinez-Bordiu, 44, grandson of Spain's 1939-75 dictator Francisco Franco, has been sentenced to one year in prison for abusing his girlfriend, a Barcelona court announced Wednesday.

Martinez-Bordiu will not however be jailed, because he did not have a criminal record.

Martinez-Bordiu threw Ruth Martinez onto a chair, hurled her suitcase to the ground and threatened to kill her to prevent her from leaving the hotel where the two were staying in the southern town of Mijas in 2007, the court said.

Martinez later said that Martinez-Bordiu was a "good person" whose behaviour was sometimes altered by the intake of cocaine.

Jaime Martinez-Bordiu is the youngest of the seven children of Carmen Franco Polo, Franco's only child.

Domestic violence is a serious problem in Spain, where about 80 women are killed annually by their husbands or partners. (dpa)