A man was awakened in the middle of the night by sounds coming from his three-year-old son’s room. The mother of the child, though surprised by what she found, did not panic, assuming her husband was beside them. What she feared became clearer when she entered the room and observed troubling behavior, leading to a serious allegation of sexual abuse involving the boy. The mother promptly alerted authorities, and the incident drew the attention of the Family and Women’s Unit (UFAM) at the Aragon Police Station, which opened an investigation.
The event was reported around 03:00 when the mother described seeing her partner naked with his pants down and the child present. Responding officers from the National Police’s Citizen Security Brigade arrived at the home on Ramiro I de Aragón Street in Zaragoza’s Delicias district. They found the suspect partially undressed, and he was apprehended on the spot.
The man, 41, described as of Dominican origin and identified as GCA, attempted to flee to the bathroom to dress, but officers restrained him in time. Investigators then interviewed the boy’s mother, who said this was the first time she had witnessed such behavior. She had frequently assumed her partner was going to bed to put the child to sleep and never imagined a scenario like this. The sister of the child also corroborated having witnessed the events.
Protocol
As a result, the man was detained as a suspect of sexual assault and spent the night in custody while awaiting court proceedings. A formal protocol was activated, and the young child was taken to a hospital for examination and treatment to assess any injuries and to determine if there were prior incidents. A forensic assessment from the Aragon Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imlcfa) is expected to be presented to the court as part of the case.
Official data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) regarding sexual offenses in Aragon show that 102 people were convicted in 2021. This figure marks a 73% increase from the previous year and a 57% rise compared with 2019 before the pandemic. By province, 73 convictions occurred in Zaragoza, 16 in Teruel, and 13 in Huesca. Nationwide, Spain recorded 3,196 convictions for sexual offenses, up 34% from the prior year.
A concerning trend highlighted by the INE data is the growing number of minors punished for sexual offenses. In Aragon, cases involving children climbed from five in 2017 to 21 in 2021. Across Spain, the count rose from 269 to 439. It is also noted that a large majority of attackers are male, with 97% of cases attributed to men.