The National Police have arrested in Cullera (Valencia) a man and a woman, aged 51 and 57 respectively, of Spanish origin, as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of mistreatment in the family environment and abandonment of minors for mistreating and keeping isolated and locked up three minors, for more than two years. In addition, the man also had five injunctions in force for crimes of fraud, two of them being arrested and imprisoned.
As explained by the National Police in a statement, last March, agents belonging to the Local Judicial Police Brigade of the Xirivella Police Station learned, in the course of investigations to locate and arrest a man on the run from justice, that several minors could be suffering episodes of abuse and abandonment. Immediately, the agents focused the investigation on the location for the protection of minors.
The investigators found out that the minors could be the children of the fugitive and that they would be living in the care of an acquaintance, since the biological mother was serving a sentence in prison.
After arduous investigative work made difficult by the different changes of address of those investigated, who would have occupied different homes in towns in the province of Valencia and, with the collaboration of the Local Police of a municipality in the Ribera Baja, it was possible to locate the suspects in a building in this town, also detecting the possible presence of minors inside it.
After establishing a surveillance device, the investigators observed that the windows of the house were always closed and the blinds lowered, making it impossible for natural light to enter the house. In addition, they observed that only one woman went outside, and on some occasions she was seen accompanied by a baby of approximately one year of age.
Throughout the investigation, the agents confirmed that none of the children had been in school for at least three years. This, together with the situation of confinement and absolute control in which the minors could be living, caused the agents to immediately request an authorization to entry and registration of the property to carry out an effective protection of the same.
Insalubrity, isolation and deprivation of liberty
In the search carried out at the home, an 18-year-old girl and three children aged 15, 11 and 1 respectively, all of them sons of the man, were identified along with the suspects. In addition to accrediting the situation of abuse and helplessness in which they found themselves.
The minors, when they were deprived of liberty, did not attend any school, and no school material was found that indicated distance or parental training. In addition, they had a notorious hygiene deficit due to the uninhabitable and unsanitary conditions of the house.
Given these facts, the agents arrested the man and the woman as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of mistreatment in the family environment and abandonment of a minor.
Those arrested, with police records, have gone to court, ordering the man’s imprisonment. Minors have been urgently requested guardianship by the Generalitat
