Man ordered to pay £12,000 to jilted bride

The young couple were supposed to wed in their local church in Beniel, in Spain's south eastern region of Murcia but less than three weeks before the ceremony, the groom Josef broke off the engagement saying he had "cold feet".

His fiancée, named only as Josefa, decided to sue her partner of several years for breach of contract claiming she had spent more than 20,000 euros preparing for their future life together.

A judge in Murcia's regional court ruled on Wednesday that Josef had "without just cause broken an agreement to marry," and ordered him to reimburse the jilted bride 15, 077 euros, the amount she spent equipping the home they were to share after their marriage.

"He promised her a future life together and then changed his mind," said the judge who made the ruling citing Article 43 of Spain's Civil Code, which outlines that those who break engagements without justification should be liable for costs incurred planning the wedding.

The priest who was to marry the couple in July 2007 said it was sad that the pair had chosen to go to court to sort out their differences.

"When I first met them, they were truly a couple who were very much in love and eager to marry," said Father Manuel Amatriain of San Bartolome church in Beniel.

"I don't know what happened to change that," he pondered outside the courtroom. "But it is clear they didn't learn anything from the premarital classes they were asked to attend at the church."