Hearing of Navarra imposes on a defendant who raped a child 9 and a half years in prison instead of 10 under the new law

PAMPLONA, 3 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The First Section of the High Court of Navarra has sentenced a 36-year-old man who raped the 10-year-old son of a friend in a house in Pamplona to 9 years and 6 months in prison. The magistrates explain that they have had to apply the new law ex officio to the defendant, as it is more favourable, and, therefore, they have imposed a lower penalty than the one that would have corresponded prior to the legal reform, which would have been 10 years in prison.

The penalty of 9 years and 6 months will be replaced by expulsion from the national territory once the accused has completed half of the sentence. He will not be able to return to Spain for 10 years, the TSJN has reported.

The defendant, a Colombian national, must indemnify the victim with 50,000 euros, who will not be able to approach or communicate with her for 12 years.

In addition, according to the sentence, which can be appealed before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Navarra, a measure of probation has been imposed, to be executed after the custodial sentence, of 5 years.

The convicted person lived together between the last quarter of 2016 and January 2018 in a house in Pamplona with his brother. As he had a good relationship with a friend of his brother, the defendant went one day that could not be determined to look for her youngest son, born in 2008, and took him home because the child could not stay with another person. There he carried out a sexual assault (rape) on the minor, whom he later told not to tell his mother what had happened.

The following day, or immediately after it, he again perpetrated another rape, also at his home. As a consequence of these events, the minor suffers from irritability, an attitude and avoidant behaviors, and feelings of guilt, shame, and anger.

In the trial, held on December 20, the Public Prosecutor accused the defendant, in accordance with the previous legislation, of two continuous crimes of sexual abuse of a child under 16 years of age and claimed 10 years in prison for each of them. For its part, the private prosecution requested 27 years (12 for one crime and 15 for another _understanding that there was intimidation_), while the defense pleaded for acquittal.

The First Section of the Hearing explains that, according to the legislation in force at the time of the facts, the penalty to be imposed would range between 8 and 12 years in prison. Due to the fact that it is a continuous crime, it indicates that the penalty could be imposed in its upper half, that is, between 10 and 12.

In response to the facts that are declared proven, the commission of the two actions that are part of the criminal continuity, the magistrates would have considered it appropriate to set the sentence in that upper half, that is, between 10 to 12 years in prison. In fact, they affirm that they would have imposed 10 years on him.

However, they add, after the new law, these crimes are punishable between 6 and 12 years. In other words, the minimum sentence is lower (6 instead of 8) than the one contemplated by the legislation in force at the time of the facts.

In this case, the upper half oscillates between 9 and 12 years, also lower than that of the previous law (from 10 to 12). For this reason, as it is more favorable to the defendant, the Court is obliged to impose a lower penalty in accordance with the new legislation. Thus, it sets a sentence of 9 years and 6 months in prison for a continued crime of sexual assault on a child under 16 with carnal access, "in application of the most favorable LO 10/2022 of September 6."

The convicted man, who was arrested on February 11, 2022 and released the following day, has been in pretrial detention for this cause since April 11 of last year.