2024-10-10 08:50:00
The Civil and Criminal Section of the Superior Court of Justice of the Region of Murcia (TSJMU) confirms the sentence of 12 years and six months of a man for sexual assault on a minor aggravated by the joint action of two or more people imposed by the Provincial Court of Murcia .
As demonstrated by the sentence issued by the Court, now confirmed in second instance, in November 2022, when the 13-year-old victim was in the house with a minor, the accused entered the apartment. Both men proposed having sexual intercourse between the three of them. Despite the minor’s refusal of any type of contact with the accused, he, together with the other young man – already convicted by the Juvenile Court – took her to the bedroom and placed her on the bed. Despite repeated denials – the resolution specifies – the accused penetrated her vaginally.
For this reason he is also sentenced to the penalty of special interdiction from the exercise of a profession or trade that involves regular and direct contact with minors for twenty years; and it is forbidden to approach within 500 meters of the minor.
He will have to compensate the minor with 20,000 euros in moral damages. And, once the prison sentence has been served, he will be placed on probation for seven years.
The appeal challenged the Court’s ruling’s assessment of the evidence, calling into question the value placed on the complainant’s statement. Accusation rejected by the Chamber, which believes that “the court’s conviction a quo appears to be supported fundamentally, but not exclusively, by the declarations of the minor complainant, which are recognized as fully reliable based on the concurrence of the requirements or notes that have been requested by the jurisprudence (by all, in STS 324/2002 of 25 February, or STC 201/1989), for its validity.” Therefore, firstly, there is no subjective credibility in said complainant, “since there are no inventions or reasons for resentment, hatred, revenge or enmity towards the accused”. And, secondly, there is sufficient incriminatory tenacity in the testimonies, without extreme contradictions referring to the actions carried out by the accused.
The Chamber also underlines that the Court’s ruling obtains confirmation of the minor’s story through other sources of evidence. On the one hand, through the testimony of the minor’s father and sister and, on the other, through the testimony of the expert psychologists of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Murcia, who consider their testimony credible. And finally, the magistrates underline in deciding the appeal, the judge of first instance attributes incriminating value to the testimony of the minor, also convicted in the juvenile jurisdiction for his participation in the facts now on trial, “to the extent in which it is concerned,” he says. – to corroborate a substantial aspect of the minor’s story, such as the reality of sexual intercourse with penetration which is affirmed by the minor in all its manifestations, and denied with equal insistence by the accused.”
The sentence is not final, it is possible to appeal against it.
This will be brought to the attention of the minor as a victim, through her legal representative as required by the Crime Victim Statute.
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