In the Provincial Court of Palma, a man has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for repeatedly raping his partner’s daughter. The abuses occurred between 2014 and 2016, when the girl was between seven and nine years old. The acts began in Alicante and later continued in Mallorca. The sentence finds the defendant guilty of a continuing crime of sexual assault and orders him to compensate the minor with 6,000 euros. He is, however, acquitted of a separate charge of exhibitionism and sexual provocation on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence that he showed the girl pornographic videos.
The accused, a 59-year-old man born in Colombia with a Venezuelan passport, had a romantic relationship with the victim’s mother in 2014, and the three started living together in Alicante. The defendant exploited moments when he was alone with the child, who was seven at the time, to commit sexual abuse. The family moved shortly afterward to Mallorca, where the assaults intensified.
According to the court’s ruling from the First Section of the Audiencia, the defendant subjected the girl to touching on numerous occasions and even penetrated her. It was also common for him to lock the child in a room and undress her to coerce sexual relations.
Fugitive in Colombia
The abuse and rapes were reported in early 2017 in Palma, and both the National Police and a preliminary court opened investigations. The man, who had previously been convicted in Mallorca for property damage and driving under the influence, could not be arrested because he fled Spain.
A search warrant issued by the court in September 2017 did not bear fruit for six years. In March 2023, Interpol reported that the suspect had been located and arrested in Colombia. The extradition process took another year, and the accused was finally brought back to Spain in February and entered prison. Before the trial, he deposited 2,000 euros to indemnify the victim.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office charged him with sexual assault and exhibitionism, asking for sentences totaling 12 years and 9 months in prison. During the trial, the defendant admitted to having touched the daughter of his partner over several years, but he denied raping her. His defense counsel requested a minimum sentence of four and a half years for abuse.
Nevertheless, the court accepted the victim’s account in full, including her judicial statement detailing repeated sexual assaults both in Alicante and Palma. It recognized an attenuation for repairing the damage due to the money paid before the trial, but noted that the defendant had fled for six years and applied almost the maximum penalty provided by law.