The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has sentenced four young people accused of raping a minor in custody to a total of 138 years in prison in 2016 in a neighborhood of Palma. One of the four defendants has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for four crimes of sexual assault and one crime of promoting coercive prostitution of a minor. Two other defendants have been sentenced to 32 years in prison for four crimes of sexual assault. There is a fourth defendant who is sentenced to 24 years in prison for four crimes of sexual assault.
The harsh sentence takes into account the seriousness of the events that were judged as it involved an unprotected and especially vulnerable minor. “In the present case, the seriousness of the facts, beyond that derived from the protected legal good and the consequences of her injury, that is, the fact of undermining the sexual indemnity of a minor, contains in itself a forceful reproach criminal, which is expressed in the specific concurrent circumstances,” states the Chamber.
The sentence considers it proven that the four young people broke into an occupied house where the minor was with another young man with whom she was having sexual relations. The convicts forced the minor to have sex with the four even though the young man who accompanied her tried to prevent it. The brutality of the attack and the circumstances of the event caused irreparable damage to the girl, who she declared protected at trial. The four denied the facts, but the magistrates do not believe her statement.
Specifically, the magistrates highlight the intensity of the injury and the repetition of the behavior, “commanding the minor to endure events that were not only inappropriate for her age, but also the fear established in her, were especially humiliating and humiliating, taking advantage of the accused that the minor was in a situation of particular vulnerability that was easily perceptible to them, the shocking traumatic situation experienced causing prejudices that, presumably, will be difficult to repair,” according to the ruling.
“We consider that the seriousness of the conduct displayed by the accused towards the victim, the moral damage inherent to it and, consequently, the serious damage that the proximity of the accused can cause, justify the imposition of the prohibition penalty on the victim. approach” point out the magistrates.
The Court also imposes that they may not approach the victim within 500 meters or communicate with her for twenty years. Those convicted must jointly and severally compensate the girl with 100,000 euros. The resolution is not final since there is an appeal before the Superior Court of Justice of the Islands.