A message from a girl under the age of 12 in the WhatsApp chat she had with her schoolmates has set off all the alarms in Malaga. According to Diario Sur, the young woman wrote: “Who has ever thought of committing suicide?”. Another student told the teacher and they both had a conversation in which sexual abuse came to light that, as proven in the sentence, was also suffered by two other girls with whom she lived in a shared apartment in Malaga. The author, stepfather of one of them, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The facts date back to 2016 and lasted until 2019, which was when the teacher uncovered the case. The girls were then between 4 and 10 years old.. The now convicted, 55-year-old, lived in the house with his partner, who was the owner of the rental contract for the property. She had a daughter from a previous relationship and two others in common. As for the other two minors, whom it has been proven that this man also abused, they were the daughters of a mother who was sublet a room in the house and of a second woman, who worked in Lorca (Murcia), to whom that they also rented another room in the same house.
The sentence considers it proven that the man touched one of them “on multiple occasions”, causing her vaginal lesions, while asking her “not to tell anyone anything.”. It is also considered proven that, in the summer of 2016 or 2017, the defendant took the three minors to a room, ordered them to take off their clothes and groped them “in succession”, asking them not to reveal anything about what happened..
Restraining order
The case was judged on May 10 in the First Section of the Provincial Court of Malaga. The Prosecutor's Office requested a 20-year prison sentence for the defendant.. For his part, the defendant's defense denied the facts that were attributed to him and requested the free acquittal. After listening to the parties, the court concluded that, as established by jurisprudence, the statement of two of the minors was sufficient proof of prosecution to undermine the presumption of innocence, since their testimonies had been considered credible in the expert report prepared by the court. Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) of Malaga.
The defense used contradictions between two of the minors regarding the dates on which the abuses had occurred. Even so, according to the expert psychologists, “these contradictions are logical and do not mean that the minors were lying”, because at these ages it is difficult to contextualize the times and in a situation of risk and pressure, “these contradictions are possible due to psychological saturation “who suffered. To the sentence must be added a restraining order of 20 and another 14 years with respect to the other two minors. In addition, it establishes compensation for both of 30,000 and 5,000 euros, respectively. The ruling, however, is still appealable..