The Jaén Court acquits the soldier accused of raping his cousin for seven years since he was nine years old

JAEN, 14 Nov. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The Second Section of the Jaén Court has acquitted a 39-year-old soldier who was tried after being accused of raping his first cousin since she was nine years old and for seven consecutive years. The court considers that it has not been proven that the defendant was the author of the facts denounced by the young woman.

In the sentence, to which Europa Press has agreed, the court states that "the victim's statement, the only evidence of the charge in the case, is insufficient in this case to destroy the presumption of innocence of the accused by missing that testimony the requirement of the verisimilitude of the same".

The ruling states that, in addition to the "serious inconsistencies" that the court sees in the story of the young complainant, "there is not the slightest peripheral corroboration" by other witnesses who can support what the young woman narrated.

The court also bases the acquittal on the WhatsApp messages between the complainant and the defendant since "in such conversations no resentment of the complainant towards her cousin is observed for what was happening, but quite the opposite".

The sentence adds that they are "normal conversations between relatives who have a good treatment, even the complainant herself sends the accused emoticons with hearts" and what in the court's opinion is "more revealing" is that "they continue to take place with full normality after having finished the situation of the alleged abuses and when the victim herself stated that she had managed to deal with it", messages in which, among other things, "the complainant invites her cousin without any hesitation to stop by her home".

The defendant maintained during the trial held last October that everything was a "lie" and that the complaint was due to alleged jealousy of the young woman. Already acquitted in this case, the defendant is also awaiting another trial for alleged sexual abuse of a nine-year-old minor, the daughter of his former romantic partner.

In his statement he insisted that "nothing" of what was reported in the complaint had happened and stated that how was he going to do something like that in order, as it has finally happened, to lose the support of his family, and to have a file open that could deprive him of of his military status, and therefore of his work, if he had finally been convicted.

For her part, the young woman, protected by a screen that separated her from the accused, gave details of the alleged sexual assaults, now rejected by the court in the sentence for not considering them proven.

In addition to the 14 years in prison for a continued crime of sexual assault of which he has finally been acquitted, the Public Ministry demanded that the defendant compensate the young woman in 30,000 euros, while the private prosecution raised the request for sentences to 15 years of prison and shared with the Prosecutor the amount claimed as civil liability.

The sentence, which declares ex officio the payment of the procedural costs, is not final and can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA).