The head of Barcelona’s number 1 juvenile court has issued an order in which he dismisses the presence of the Badalona City Council as a popular accusation in cases of sexual assaults on minors reported in the city for a few months. The mayor, Xavier García Albiol, has announced that the Consistory will appeal the decision.
The mayor of Badalona regretted yesterday that the juvenile court “has separated us from the process” when the intention of the municipal executive is to promote an “exemplary” measure in the face of sexual assaults in the city. “It is one more difficulty that greatly limits our room for manoeuvre,” he explained. The City Council’s legal services are studying the possibility of appealing the judicial decision.
On the other hand, the mayor referred to the latest case denounced by the Mossos d’Esquadra, in which they accuse a 23-year-old adult of sexual assault on a 13-year-old minor in the parking lot of the Màgic shopping center. Albiol specified that “it is an exceptional case, since it was consensual relations.” Despite this, he assured that “justice must act.”
The mayor of Badalona congratulated himself on the fact that, in this last case, the security measures reinforced by the shopping center “have worked” since they have been able to detect an “abnormal” non-violent situation. Despite this, he affirmed that “as a society we have a problem if a child under 13 years of age seeks sexual relations with adults, something that is not natural” which is why he calls for “prevention and awareness measures” to avoid the situations experienced during the last months with minors, “we must work in this direction,” he said.
