The Fifth Section of the Valencia Court has sentenced a man who raped a young woman in the old bed of the Turia River, in the provincial capital, to ten years in prison, on November 12, 2022.
The court considers him the perpetrator of a crime of sexual assault with the use of violence for which it appreciates the aggravating circumstance of taking advantage of the circumstances of the place, since he took her to a solitary place “to facilitate the crime and ensure its impunity.”
The convicted person must compensate the victim, who was 20 years old at the time of the events, with 12,000 euros for moral damages and for the “extensive mental and physical suffering” that he caused, and will not be able to get closer than 300 meters or communicate by any means with her for 11 years.
The events occurred at dawn, when the girl was in a park near the Valencia bus station with two friends who were absent and left her alone waiting for her return.
Shortly after, the convicted man approached the area and the young woman asked him if he had seen his friends, to which he answered affirmatively and told her that they were in the old bed of the Túria River, a large garden that crosses the city and is isolated by walls, with some poorly lit areas and numerous vegetation.
The attacker offered to accompany her to look for them. According to the sentence, once in the riverbed and, “taking advantage of the most absolute solitude of the place”, which “had been intentionally searched” by the man, he pushed the victim, threw her to the ground and sexually forced her, while she He screamed for me to stop.
During the sexual assault, the young woman managed to escape and ran out of the riverbed along one of the ramps to take refuge in the nearby bus station.
A client of a hotel near the riverbed who had heard the screams for help from the attacked woman looked out on the balcony, witnessed the attack and notified the Police, who were able to arrest the suspect.
Other agents accompanied the victim to a health center, but before doing so they crossed paths with the detainee and she recognized him at that moment as her aggressor.
The sentence is not final and can be appealed before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
