The Supreme Court (TS) has annulled a reduction that the Provincial Court of Alicante applied to a sexual offender under what is known as law of only yes is yes considering that the “extreme” violence used in the rape would not allow his prison sentence to be modified downwards but rather would increase it.
The magistrates emphasize that, in this case, the accused used “intense, unusual” and “prolonged” violence that – after the reform of the Penal Code– carries a minimum impossible penalty of 11 years in prison for the crime of sexual assault, a figure higher than the 9 years that was imposed on the aggressor in the lower court sentence or the 7 years that was applied after the review.
In the ruling, to which Europa Press has had access, the Criminal Chamber explains that the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom contemplates greater penalties for cases in which the attack occurs with “extremely serious violence.” For this reason, he considers that in this case the new legal wording does not benefit the prisoner and that the appropriate thing is to apply the previous Penal Code and leave him with the original sentence of 9 years in prison.
The man was convicted of an attack that took place in June 2015, when he met his then partner in a pub in a municipality of Alicante. That night, she told him that she wanted to “leave the relationship.” They both left together, in the same car, with the intention of “going to their respective homes.” He, however, strayed “down a country road” and raped her while she yelled “slut,” “whore.”
She managed to break free in the middle of the attack and ran away. He followed her until he caught up with her. According to her sentence, he “pushed her, she fell to the ground, and once she was lying down she kicked and punched him many times all over her body, including her head and face.” She was left semi-conscious.