Alert for the repeated group rapes of minors in Badalona: "They follow the same pattern"

They are very young victims, some of them in vulnerable situations, of which the aggressors take advantage of to rape them in a group to cause them more humiliation and to prevent them from reporting. Sometimes they are assaulted at the point of a knife and other times a minor usually contacts them through social networks or in an educational center. Once they gain their trust, they propose to meet them to have consensual sexual relations and that is when friends or relatives of the minor appear to attack them.. This is what happened to the 13-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted last Saturday afternoon by a group of 8 or 9 minors in a field near the Badalona train station, but it is not an isolated case since in little more than a Four other group attacks on minors have been recorded this year, also committed by young people under 18 years of age.

The other four had taken place in the toilets of the Màgic de Badalona shopping center, but after the sexual assault last Saturday, all the alarms have gone off due to the possibility of similar events being repeated in other parts of the city.. The Central Unit against Sexual Assaults (UCAS) of the Mossos d'Esquadra, the same one that investigates the violations of the Màgic, is also looking for the suspects of the attack a few days ago. The minor explained that she had met her partner, whom she met through a social network, to have sex, but when they saw each other, other minors appeared who raped her in a group and even recorded the scene.

A neighbor alerted the police and patrols from the Mossos and the Badalona Urban Guard showed up to take care of the victim, who was treated at a medical center, and the minors fled in a stampede. The agents were able to identify some of them from the girl's statement and from some personal items they left in the open field when they escaped.. That is why they try to locate them to stop them and, although they work with the hypothesis that they are all minors, there could be someone of legal age or even someone under 13 years of age, so they would not be charged.

At the moment, the investigation is focused on areas of the Sant Roc de Badalona neighborhood to catch them. The agents have viewed the cameras in the area and an analysis of the social networks of the minor and her environment has been carried out.. Police sources point out to this medium that this group sexual assault has similar characteristics with the other four registered in the Màgic de Badalona shopping center, due to the way of approaching the victim, the abuse of power of the aggressors and how the roles were distributed. since while some were watching others raped the helpless victim. “They follow the same pattern”, they point out from the investigation that they have also found a common profile in the aggressors, apart from the fact that almost all of them are minors, since they tend to act with great contempt towards women.

Earlier this year it was learned that an 11-year-old girl was raped last November by five minors in the toilets of the shopping center. Three of them are indictable while another returned to a detention center last week and a fifth has distance measures from the victim.. A few weeks later it was learned that in January a 13-year-old girl was treated at a health center after an alleged sexual assault in the shopping center by her 15-year-old partner, who forced her to give fellatio to family and friends under blackmail. There are two detainees, the boyfriend and another 17-year-old boy, for this attack and the Mossos are looking for two others. The minor is under the guardianship of the Generalitat.

A 17-year-old girl also reported to the Mossos that last summer a group of 10 minors assaulted her in the shopping center threatening her with a knife, they took her to the bathroom and there they forced her to give fellatio to several of them until she was able to escape.. The same modus operandi as the assailants of the minor under 11 years of age, according to police sources. In addition, the case of a minor under 14 years of age who was sexually assaulted by an adult with whom he had met on social media at the Màgic was known.

political polemic

Beyond these open police investigations to find the attackers, the group rape of a girl on Saturday opened a political controversy. The mayor-elect of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, urged a modification of the minor's law after the June elections so that minors under 14 years of age who commit sexual assaults can be charged. “You cannot put a minor with 12 years in prison, but a minor under 12 who commits this crime cannot be free on the street,” said García Albiol in Rac1 and added that the current legislation is raised “with a mentality that it no longer exists and they have to be reconsidered” so “the city councils can do little but we can open debates along these lines”.

However, the spokesperson for the Government of the Generalitat, Patrícia Plaja, expressed her rejection of the proposal and added that it is not possible to “legislate by hitting the headline”. After condemning the “bestiality” of the assault on the minor from Badalona last Saturday, the spokeswoman remarked that “there must be an assumption of responsibility that does not go through hardening the weights, but through reinsertion; so that they never do it again more” and also urged “not to focus on a specific city but on a general phenomenon”.

This Thursday, the Badalona City Council will hold an extraordinary plenary session to reject the group sexual assault of a minor that occurred on Saturday and it will be approved that the Consistory be a popular accusation, to defend the victim, in the open judicial procedure, in addition to placing itself at its disposal. provision. Representatives of the Badalona City Council and the Generalitat will also hold a meeting to address the numerous sexual assaults that have occurred in the city in recent months and the best way to care for the victims.

Precisely, entities such as the Comitè de Mares against Sexual Violence in Badalona or the Moviment Lliures i Combatives, very active since the sexual assaults at the Màgic, have asked the City Council for forceful action to put an end to this “scourge” of rape groups in the city. Thus, they have asked for investments in social services to attend to the victims since some have felt “abandoned by the institutions” as Teresa Prados, spokeswoman for Lliures y Combatives stated, who accused the previous government team of “whitening the image of the mall”.

In statements on Cuatro she added that “we raised our voices for these victims and we will continue to do so as many times as necessary” and stressed that the institutions “have ignored us, have mocked the victims and have doubted that they are victims of rape”. In addition, he lamented the “impunity” with which sexual assaults have left the mall and spread throughout Badalona with “no one to stop it”. They also demanded improvements in education to tackle in the classroom the problem of male violence and sexual deviations on non-consensual relationships that are learned by consuming pornography indiscriminately.