35 years in prison for rape and attempted murder of minor in central Catalonia in 2021

Barcelona Court has sentenced a man to 35 years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of a minor in 2021 in Igualada, central Catalonia.

The man, who was 21 years old at the time of the events, raped the girl, who was 16, on the night of Castanyada (Halloween night) on October 31, 2021 when he was returning home after a party at a nightclub.

The court sentenced him to 15 years in prison for sexual assault with penetration and using a large object and to 20 years minus one day for attempted murder. Judges applied an aggravating factor of gender discrimination.

The public prosecutor's office requested 45 years in prison. The perpetrator has been held in preventive detention since April 2022.

The sentence states that the perpetrator followed the victim when she left the nightclub on November 1, 2021, around 6 am. He attacked her "on the head with a large object several times after surprising her," even though he knew that "there was a high probability of ending her life."

The man then took the victim to a street "with complete contempt for the fact that she was female" and "repetitively and brutally introduced several parts of his body, such as his fist or arm, and unidentified sharp objects," while "taking advantage of the fact that she was almost unconsciousness," the sentence reads. These events lasted approximately 20 minutes.

The injuries she suffered meant she had to undergo 365 days of treatment. Out of these, for 332 could not perform her normal activities, and there were 30 days in hospital and three days in the intensive care unit (ICU).

19 years and 364 days

The court has said that all evidence points out that the blows to the head and on the other parts of the body took place before the sexual assault, which happened while the 16-year-old girl was almost unconscious. 

If it had been the other way around, the sexual assault first and then trying to murder her, the judge would have been able to include the aggravating factor of attempted murder following rape.

For this reason, judges note that application of three aggravating factors for murder would carry between 20 and 25 years in prison, but as it is attempted murder, the sentence is lowered to between 15 and 20 years. The court ruled that the perpetrator would spend the longest time possible in prison for this crime, 19 years and 364 days.

Brutal attacks and wish to murder victim

During the trial that started in mid-July in Barcelona, several witnesses and lawyers said that the attack was very brutal and there the attacker wanted to murder the victim. The final statements also tackled the male-focused modus operandi and that he was looking for "humiliation."

The Fecasarm nightclubs union lawyer said that the accused was "a danger to the public" and that this "savage" could not be freed. "He did not want to assault her. He just wanted to kill her," he added during his final testimony in court.

The perpetrator was not looking for sexual pleasure but "to do as much harm as possible to the victim," some of the members of the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police group focused on analyzing criminal behavior said.

According to the same testimony, the victim had "very severe injuries" in her head and in her anal areas, and they had never seen any injuries like them. "There was a lack of empathy and regret," and there "was a of chance that he would attack again," the testimony said, as the perpetrator had left the victim there.

In fact, one of the forensic doctors said that the injury was "very large" and that these injuries "are not very compatible" with just the male reproductive system, but that he would have used "a large object." He also said that "these injuries are more common to be seen in the autopsy room rather than in a first exam."

Defending innocence

Meanwhile, the defense continued to argue his client's innocence and that there was insufficient evidence against him. Lawyer Gerard Negrell mainly focused his closing speech on questioning all the proof, such as that his client's phone was not geolocated, but they used his signal connection area, which does not work, according to the lawyer, as the signal could have because of the proximity to the nightclub.

"You can say that my client was in the area," he said, but he ruled out that he was at the place the attack took place. The lawyer had also requested not to take into account the surveillance footage because of the "lack of quality" of the images.

Found by truck driver

The victim was found around 7 am on November 1 by a truck driver in the logistics area of the municipality in a very badly lit street.

She was found half naked, trembling, almost unconscious, and surrounded by a large quantity of blood on the ground, and on her face and genitalia.

Mossos d'Esquadra police were able to identify the perpetrator at the time using 155 surveillance cameras.

Even though the events were not recorded, several cameras recorded the moments before and the aftermath, where the 21-year-old man (at the time)  left the area with a piece of clothing that could be from the victim.

Phone signal also placed the perpetrator near the area, and police found several Google Maps screenshots on his phone near the victim's location. A testimony said that those screenshots may have been taken "involuntarily" as he had drunk and consumed drugs.