2024-04-12 10:54:00
The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country has confirmed the sentence of 7 years and one day in prison imposed by the Court of Bizkaia on a man for sexually abusing a woman who was “seriously influenced” by alcohol ingested and with an “appreciable and intense decrease in their decision-making capacity to self-determine in the sexual sphere.”
The Basque high court rejects the appeal filed by the defendant and confirms in all its aspects the ruling of the Court of Bizkaia that sentenced him to the aforementioned prison sentence as the perpetrator of a crime of sexual abuse with carnal access with the aggravating circumstance of recidivism.
The Biscayan Court also imposed a 5-year supervised release measure after the prison sentence with the obligation to participate in sexual education training programs and the payment of compensation to the victim of 9,000 euros, as well as the prohibition to communicate. and approach it to less than 500 meters for 8 years and one day.
According to the facts declared proven, the woman was celebrating on the afternoon of June 15, 2021 in bars in the Old Town of Bilbao until, after midnight on June 16, the accused invited the woman and her friend to have a drink at his bar, where the defendant served her an “undetermined number of shots of a mixture of liquors that he had already prepared.”
After and once the accused was left alone with the woman in the establishment and with the knowledge that she “was seriously influenced by the alcohol ingested and with an appreciable and intense decrease in her decision-making capacity to self-determine in the sexual sphere, “He had sexual relations with her.”
The lower court ruling states that at the time of the events she was undergoing psychopharmacological treatment with substances that, when mixed with alcohol, “enhance its sedative effect.”
The Bizkaia Court concluded, after the joint and weighted assessment of all the evidence, that the woman “did not consent to sexual relations with the accused because at that time her faculties to make decisions of a sexual nature were impaired, due to the ingestion of alcohol. , in excessive quantities, and the prescribed medication he was taking, which enhanced the effects of that”, and that the man was “fully aware of said circumstance.”
The accused appealed the resolution, questioning the degree of alcohol intoxication of the woman at the time of the events and also the lack or lack of consent of her in the relationship.
The TSJPV recalls that “abundant alcohol consumption was proven” with a blood alcohol level, retrospectively calculated, of between 1 and 1.5 grams of alcohol per liter of blood at the time of the events.
This, together with the fact that he was taking medication, vomited in the bar, arrived home in a “horrible state, collapsing in the bathroom, retching, not knowing how to explain anything”, point, says the TSJPV, to the reality of a “serious intoxication”. ” alcohol that “influenced all levels of his ability to understand and decide,” and that “effectively corroborates” the victim’s testimony that his level of consciousness was “minimal.”
The TSJPV, in a ruling that is not final and against which an appeal can be made to the Supreme Court, also rejected, as did the Court of Bizkaia, the existence of spurious intention that induced the woman to denounce the defendant.
“The decision adopted by the trial court was duly and sufficiently motivated and based on the rules of logic, the maxims of experience and scientific knowledge, without being able to attribute arbitrariness, unreasonableness or error in its assessment denounced by the appellant. ”says the TSJPV.
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