The TSJM reduces the sentence for sexual abuse of a minor from 20 to 15 years in prison for the 'Yes is yes'

MADRID, 15 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has reduced the sentence of a man for the commission of two continuous crimes of sexual abuse of a minor under 20 years of age to 15 years in prison by applying the new wording of the Penal Code contained in the Organic Law 10/2022, known the law of 'Only yes is yes'.

Legal sources indicate that this is the third sentence in which the initial sentence is reduced by the TSJM since this penal reform came into force.

In a sentence, to which Europa Press had access, the Civil and Criminal Chamber agrees to partly uphold the appeal of the convicted person, filed due to the new regulation promoted by the Ministry of Equality.

The prisoner was sentenced by the Provincial Court to a sentence of ten years and one day in prison for each of the two aforementioned crimes. Now, the regional court reduces the first of them to six years and the second to nine years and one day in prison for being the perpetrator criminally responsible for sexual abuse committed in 2004 on two children under 14 years of age.

In the proven facts, the Madrid Court stated that the convicted person contacted his first victim in April 2004 through the Instagram social network and, after chatting with him in private, persuaded him to meet in person in a park near the institute where he studied.

This first meeting gave rise to many others in the context of which the abuses occurred. A month later, the prisoner managed to get his victim to introduce him to a friend of the same age, achieving his purpose of, in successive and repeated encounters, starring in episodes of sexual abuse of various kinds. To achieve his purpose of satisfying his sexual desire, the abuser invited them to eat or gave them gifts, such as clothes or slippers.

The Chamber argues the reduction of the sentence in the fait accompli that "the new regulation contained in the Penal Code after the reform operated by LO 10/2022, contains a specific provision for cases of sexual assault on persons under 16 years of age ".

This provision makes it possible to impose a prison sentence of lesser degree in attention to the lesser entity of the act and assessing all the concurrent circumstances, including the personal circumstances of the culprit, except when there is violence or intimidation or the circumstances provided for in article 181.4', which fully conforms to the facts prosecuted in this case.

And the resolution continues, 'this legal provision did not exist prior to the aforementioned reform, so that performing acts of a sexual nature with a minor under 16 years of age was punished as sexual abuse with a sentence of 2 to 6 years ( article 183.1 of the CP)'.

The Chamber finally concludes that in this specific case, "there is no violence or intimidation, nor is any of the circumstances listed in article 181.4 appreciated, and therefore there are no grounds for exclusion from the application of the new attenuated subtype".