Child Abuse and Disease: Man Sentenced After Horrific Crime

A 51-year-old man identified as Marcelo Rubén Ruiz was sentenced to 16 years in prison for having sexually abused a niño who caused serious damage to his health by infecting him with a disease. The crime was committed in Santo Tomé, a city in the Santa Fe department of La Capital.

The sentence was resolved by Judge Susana Luna in a oral trial that took place in the courts of the city of Santa Fe.

The criminal investigation was led by prosecutor Matías Broggi, while prosecutor Laura Gerard represented the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPA) in the debate.

After hearing the verdict, Gerard assessed that “the magistrate considered the criminal attribution proven and sentenced Ruiz for the criminal classification and the amount of the penalty that we had requested in our arguments.”

Likewise, the prosecutor specified that “from the MPA, we carry out articulated work with the Secretariat of the Rights of Children, Adolescents and Family of the province, the Local Service for the Promotion and Protection of Children’s Rights of Santo Tomé and the SAMCo of that city, in order to protect the rights of the child who suffered the abuse, provide him with comprehensive support and clarify what had happened.”

Gerard pointed out that “the convicted man committed the abuse in 2022, when the victim was in primary school,” and clarified that “the man was neighbor and friend of the little one’s family.”

“The criminal act took place in the child’s home, on one occasion when Ruiz was left in charge of taking care of him while they were alone in a place in the house,” stated the MPA official. “By sexually assaulting him, he transmitted a disease with which the victim was diagnosed the following year and required various medical interventions and treatments,” he stressed.

Ruiz was convicted as the author of sexual abuse with aggravated carnal access (for having caused serious damage to the victim’s health).