Logroño (EFE) life” because they have “taken away all the joy”.
David, Álex’s father, has testified on the third day of the trial with a people’s court that is being held in the Provincial Court of Logroño against Francisco Javier Almeida, considered the alleged perpetrator of these events and who has been on probation since April 2020.
He recalled that that afternoon he was with his wife and another friendly couple in one of these picnic areas, next to the Entre Ríos de Lardero park, where their children played dressed up for the Halloween party.
“Just before dinner, Álex asked us to say goodbye to some friends and we let him go out to the park with the other couple’s daughter. It was nothing, the girl came right away and said that a man had taken it. At full speed we went out to look for him and my wife called the Police ”, he recounted very emotionally.
Then, he continued, they first searched the portals located in front of the defendant’s building, until they found the child; Several toilets in the area tried to revive the minor, but he no longer had a pulse or was breathing, as confirmed this Wednesday by a doctor and a nurse who came to assist the child.
In response to questions from the jury, he indicated that his son liked animals, but he was also “afraid” when he saw a dog on the street; and he has considered it “impossible” that he had left voluntarily with a stranger, so he believes that he “had to take him by force.”
Previous complaints
During the search for Álex, his father specified that a neighbor in the area told him that something had already happened, since a man had tried to take a child and they had called the Police.
In relation to this matter, three neighboring mothers from this area have testified as witnesses, one of whom has indicated that she called the Local Police of Lardero because, a week and a half before the events, the defendant returned a ball in the park her daughter and a friend, about 7 or 8 years old, and she invited them to go to her house to see some birds.
He added that he called the Lardero Local Police to file a complaint, but the agents told him that they had no one to file it against and, furthermore, nothing had happened, but they recommended that they be vigilant and promised to monitor the area more. who later patrolled on a motorcycle.
Another neighbor in the area has also declared, whose son had previously photographed the defendant leaning out the window of his house, since the minors had found him several times sitting in the park and it seemed “very dark.”
The prosecutor and the private accusations, by Álex’s family, and the popular one, represented by the Clara Campoamor Association, demand permanent reviewable prison for Almeida for the crime of murder and 15 years in prison for sexual assault; while his defense calls for acquittal.
