Three defenseless minors subjected to aberrational abuse by their own parents. And two others that were saved from the worst because they were too small. That is the summary of the tremendous succession of events judged this week by the Second Section of the Provincial Court of Castellón, which has sentenced the mother of the children to sentences totaling 21 and a half years in prison.
The charges: continued crimes of sexual assault, exhibitionism and exhibition of pornographic material to a minor, injuries that have caused serious mental illness and habitual mistreatment in the family environment committed on three of their children, minors.
The older children, two girls and a boy, were the ones who suffered the most abuse, because the two little sisters were barely two and four years old when they were declared helpless and their guardianship was assumed by the Administration.
The Chamber has appreciated in the conduct of the convicted person the mitigation of drug addiction and undue delay, as well as the aggravating factor of kinship for all these criminal offenses, with the exception of injuries. The father of the victims has also been sentenced to six months in prison and fines for a crime of habitual mistreatment in the family environment, exhibitionism and exhibition of pornographic material to minors.
None of them will be able to get closer than 200 meters or communicate with the injured parties. And they will have to jointly compensate each of them with 20,000 euros. The ruling also imposes on the sentenced woman the obligation to compensate her eldest daughter with 60,000 euros, for the damages and consequences that she suffered as a result of the events.
The two defendants had five children, four girls and one boy, between 1999 and 2008. According to the account of proven facts included in the judicial decision, from birth, neither of the parents took care of the children and they seriously failed to comply and reiterated the duties of parental authority. All the warning signs were there: poor diet, thinness, inappropriate or poor clothing, delayed development, truancy, or relationship difficulties.
I wish there had only been neglect. Because in the trial the repeated harassment of the mother towards her children, to whom she inflicted physical and psychological abuse without her father, who spent periods of time in prison, doing anything to avoid it, has been considered proven.
According to the sentence, the three oldest were physically assaulted by the mother, who beat them with sticks, belts or irons, pulled their hair and dragged them along the ground. She even put a boiling spoon on the child’s genitals.
Both parents used cocaine and heroin daily in front of the children, who were forced to supply third parties with the drug or go looking for it. According to the ruling, they even consumed it. In addition, the couple had sexual relations in front of minors and often watched pornographic movies with them, so the boy began to develop inappropriate sexual behavior for his age.
During the period that the father spent in prison, between 2004 and 2007, the eldest daughter, who at that time would have been 6 or 7 years old, was subjected to abuse and sexual assault by a relative and by one of the couples she had at the time. his mother, without her stopping him. This experience has caused this victim serious psychological consequences both at the level of mental health and the development of her personality.
The sentence handed down by the Second Section of the Court of Castellón can be appealed before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
