Logroño, (EFE).- The Provincial Court of Logroño has acquitted a man accused of being the alleged perpetrator of a continued crime of sexual abuse of a minor under 15 years of age when the events occurred, in the summer of 2020.
The sentence, to which EFE has agreed, details that the prosecutor requested for this man, sentimental partner of the young woman’s mother, a sentence of 5 years in prison, which raised the private accusation to 6; while the defense requested acquittal.
The events, which were tried last April, occurred, according to the young woman, on two occasions, when the defendant, waking her up in the morning, lay on her bed and touched her right leg and thigh while giving her small and loud kisses in the area of the clavicles and neck.
The minor “felt uncomfortable, upset and confused by these events” and shortly after went to live with her father (a friend of the defendant and with whom he had a business), to whom she told what had happened and was the one who filed a complaint.
The ruling of the Court, which can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of La Rioja, emphasizes that, although the type of touching that the minor exposed is a crime of sexual abuse, there must be total certainty and evidence of the participation of the defendant to plead guilty.
It is also noted, according to the statements of those involved and experts, that the minor had a very good relationship with this man and that she has always repeated that only on those two occasions did what she recounted happen.
The defendant, defended by Juango Ospina, declared that there was no sexual connotation in his behavior and that the complaint was due to an economic claim made by his father and to take revenge for his relationship with his mother.
REASONABLE DOUBTS
The magistrates of the Court affirm that they have “reasonable doubts about the criminal significance of the facts on trial” and come to the conviction that “they are not of unequivocal sexual significance.”
They indicate that the relationship between the defendant and the young woman “was similar to that of a father and a daughter, with signs of affection”, for which reason what happened “could have bothered or made the young woman uncomfortable, but it was something devoid of sexual content.” .
In addition, they believe that what happened did not cause any emotional impact on the young woman, “she only declared that she was uncomfortable”, although she continued to see him and was awakened by him and “she changed her perception of what happened by being influenced by third parties.”
“The doubts that the Chamber harbors, and that have not been cleared up with the evidence carried out, are not about the facts, but about the erroneous interpretation that the young woman could have made of them and about their sexual significance,” says the judge. failed.
The incriminating statement of the young woman, he specifies, is not “enough to justify a conviction” because, although the story is credible, “there are serious doubts” about the sexual content of the acts carried out by the defendant, which “could be misinterpreted by the young and magnified by the influence of third parties”.