Albert López, convicted of the crime of the Barcelona Urban Guard, denies having confessed to the murder of agent Pedro Rodríguez. The convict contacted La Vanguardia yesterday through his lawyer to clarify the information that emerged on Tuesday and which indicated that, after seven years of silence and evasion, López had acknowledged the facts for which he had been convicted with the goal of obtaining prison permits. Yesterday, the convict denied everything. He assured that in the frequent conversations he has with the Quatre Camins prison psychiatrist, as part of his prison treatment program, he acknowledged having covered up the crime, a fact for which he showed remorse, for not having acted in a different way way, such as calling the police.
The recognition of the facts is a condition to be taken into account by the professionals of the treatment boards of the prisons so that the prisoners progress in degree and can opt for weekend leave. López, sentenced to twenty years in prison for murder, has already served seven, has completed a quarter of the sentence and could apply for parole. For this reason, he works with the center’s professionals on aspects such as forgiveness, regret and the assumption of responsibilities.
If López’s words were true, they would not represent any twist of the script with respect to what he always maintained at the trial: that he had limited himself to helping Rosa Peral get rid of the corpse of her boyfriend, Pedro Rodríguez, helping to burn the body in the trunk of her car on a forest track in the Foix swamp. This version is the one that López maintained at trial. And it is the same that at least yesterday he affirmed to this newspaper.
The day before, El Periódico published information indicating that López had acknowledged the facts for which he was convicted, that is, that he ended the life of Pedro Rodríguez together with his lover, Rosa Peral. The information was not only published by the rotary but was confirmed by news agencies in the same terms. Lopez’s denial can be interpreted in two ways: either he actually confessed to his involvement in the murder to the prison psychiatrist and, after the uproar that ensued, decided to back down, or he just admit to having covered up the crime and this limited assumption of responsibility was misinterpreted.
The alleged confession of Albert López ran like wildfire. There were reports that claimed that López had confessed to the crime, implying that he was exclusively responsible for the murder, exonerating Rosa Peral. In fact, based on some information published by the media, one of the woman’s lawyers indicated that they would study the possibility of presenting a review appeal before the Supreme Court so that it could consider an eventual acquittal of her client. As the hours passed, when it was seen that López’s confession could be questioned and that there was no document to prove it, Peral’s other lawyer, Olga Arderiu, admitted to TV3 yesterday that there was no point in claiming a review of the sentence if no new evidence had appeared that would allow the case to be reopened.
After seeing the media interest generated by the news, Albert López’s lawyer, José Luís Bravo, publicly denied the reports and assured that his client had not confessed to the crime. “The information is false. Albert López has assured me that he has never confessed to having participated in the death of Pedro Rodríguez”, he said on the TV3 program Tot és mou.
In April 2020, the Barcelona Court sentenced the officers of the Guardia Urbana, Albert López and Rosa Peral, to 20 years and 25 years in prison, respectively, for murdering Pedro Rodríguez, also an officer of the same police force and romantic partner of the woman The sentence considered that both planned the murder and that they took advantage of the fact that the victim was asleep to cut her life with a blunt object.
