contacted with homeless minorsthat he provided cocaine in exchange for sex, and that he used violence when the girls resisted. In May 2022, the Court of Cassation approved all aspects of the 34 years and 7 months prison sentence given to the perpetrator of these acts, which the Albacete Provincial Court described as “disgusting”. for two crimes sexual assaultcorruption of minors, injuries and crimes against public health.
High court decision of 24 July, with El Periódico de España from the Prensa Ibérica group as rapporteur magistrate and former state attorney general Julián Sánchez MelgaR. In the light of the defense arguments, in the proceedings before the court, Two girls aged 17 and 15 In different parts over time there was evidence of accusation considered rational, so no acquittal.
The episode where two minors come together, in August 2020, the girls, Overseen by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha, They fled by taking the taxi that the suspect had previously hired. ground of protection Their place of residence in Albacete. The car took them to a warehouse located in the Campollano industrial area of this city, where this person and his a friend nicknamed ‘el colorao’, in front of a table with cocaine and tools to smoke it
childlike appearance
When “Colorao” saw them “because they’re little girls”, she got angry and warned her friend about the girlish appearance of one of the girls who didn’t even look like 15 years old. nevertheless they offered them drugs. One of the girls was already addicted – because the convict regularly offered her in exchange for sex – while her friend had never been in contact with the substance.
Therefore, the little girl began to feel bad a few minutes after taking the medicine, and the convict offered to accompany her to the bathroom. There he raped her, despite her resistance with kicks, punches, and bites. According to the sentence, he did not stop shouting and asking for help, but neither his friend nor “el colorao” could hear him.
Regarding the other girl, the sentence details how she met the attacker because his mother rented a room for him In the house in La Mancha, the capital of Castile, where they both live. There, she provided him with free alcohol, “joints”, and also cocaine, while he had sex with her, until the underage was transferred to the protection floor. Atreo-Colabora association.
According to the Supreme Court, the accused “had the ability coordinating and organizing what was done that nightAs evidenced by the fact that it was he who called the taxi to pick up the minors (…) he waited for them outside the warehouse and paid for the taxi, and as soon as they got inside he drove them through the warehouse until he reached them. In their office, I found cocaine and the necessary tools to prepare it for smoking on the table.”
He adds that ingesting drugs does not prevent the accused from understanding the illegality of his action, “On the other hand, It’s disgusting because it deals with minors under the age of 16 who have been drugged and tricked into having sex in exchange for drugs. despite such ingestion, he would not have been noticed by the accused and of course did not directly push him to commit the crime”.
capacity to consent
Considering the convicted person’s claims that the facts before the Court of Cassation were told and the maturity of the victims was questioned, the Supreme Court replied: the girls had a degree of development and maturity commensurate with their age, Therefore, nothing can prevent them from understanding the scope or meaning of sexual intercourse or limit their ability to consent.
Regarding the latter of the girls, there was also the expert opinion of psychologists who stated that it is very common for a victim of abuse to have difficulty understanding and processing the abuse. “Sometimes they think ‘if they believe what I want’, ‘I didn’t avoid’it’s very common,” the experts concluded, in addition to the fact that the minor’s drug use is largely mediated.
Finally, the high court is refusing to apply the so-called “if yes” law in this case because it is more favorable than a 12-year sentence for assault on one of the minors. This period, introduced by the new article 181 of the Penal Code, goes up to 15 years. In the case of the second victim, what determined the escalation of the minimum sentence prescribed in the type was proportional to the repetition of events, so there is no room for change.