Yesterday, Badalona registered the fourth case of sexual assault in the Màgic shopping center in Badalona in less than eight months. The last one came to light yesterday and set off all the alarms that forced the City Council and the security forces to act inside the shopping arcades.
A young woman who is now 17 years old reported last August to the police station of Badalona that a group of 10 young people, under threats with sharp weapons, forced her to perform fellatio in the toilets of the center three d them, while the other seven kept watch outside. In a flash, the victim managed to escape to go to the police station. In her statement she also reported that she was aware that something similar had happened to a friend of hers a year ago, but that in this case she did not file a complaint.
Of the four cases investigated, one of them is that of the 11-year-old girl who was raped last November by a group of four minors, who are not criminally liable and who live in the neighborhood of Sant Roc de Badalona . The event had a great media impact that sparked an intense social debate about the criminal responsibility of minors who commit this type of sexual assault. One of the rapists is interned in a juvenile center, three other minors are under the care of the General Directorate of Child Care, as is the teenager who threatened to kill the victim’s brother.
The Catalan police have opened an investigation into three more cases of sexual assault inside the commercial establishment. One of the stories that emerges from the complaints refers to a sexual assault, also in the toilets of the Màgic, by an adult on a child under the age of 14 with whom he allegedly met through a social network. Under the pretext of entering the toilets to kiss, the adult pulled down the minor’s pants and sexually assaulted him without any consent.
A fourth rape took place in the same scene, in the toilets of the shopping center, in the last week of last February. A 14-year-old girl went to the emergency department of the Can Ruti Hospital with injuries caused by an assault. Investigators found out that the minor had been assaulted by her romantic partner, who violently forced her to have oral sex with three friends against her will.
A group of mothers has organized to protest the attacks in the shopping center area.
Badalona City Council, for its part, due to the new information about new sexual assaults held a meeting with all the agents involved: Mossos, Urban Guard, the Màgic shopping center and Germans Trias i Pujol hospital.
The Municipal Government of Badalona has established several measures to improve safety protocols in the large area. Among others, operations have been activated inside the site, with foot patrols from the Mossos and Urban Guard, and plainclothes officers are not ruled out.
The City Council has activated all available resources to help the victims and their families. The local Government continues to review with other administrations the action and intervention protocols to detect and prevent possible new cases in shopping centers and other leisure spaces.
In the same vein, the municipal four-party group maintains the will for the City Council to present itself as a private prosecution in all cases to defend the victims of aggression.
