Madrid (EFE).- The Supreme Court has reduced the sentence from nine to three years in prison for a man who repeatedly raped his wife in Cádiz for years due to “extraordinary and undue delay” in the case.
The convicted man began a relationship with the woman in 2006 when he was 19 years old. Barely a year later, her attitude towards her became increasingly violent and, after the birth of her daughter in 2009, the situation worsened with frequent assaults and beatings, for which he was convicted of habitual abuse in 2017.
As a consequence of his domination over her, he frequently asked her to have sexual relations and when she refused, the man assaulted her, beat her, and forced himself to rape her while telling her, you are only mine! or “bitch, slut, whore!”.
In October 2014, he denounced the events that gave rise to legal proceedings for habitual abuse. Almost a year later, the woman appeared again to denounce her rapes.
As a consequence of these events, the woman undergoes treatment for her anxious-depressive symptoms with post-traumatic stress.
Reduced prison sentence and prohibition to approach the victim
The Court of Cádiz sentenced the man for a continued crime of rape with the mitigation of reparation to 9 years in prison, the prohibition to approach the victim for 10 years, five years of probation and 2,000 euros in compensation.
But now the Supreme Court lowers the sentence to three years in prison and five without approaching the woman by applying the mitigation of undue delay.
The Supreme Court says that “there has been an extraordinary and undue delay” after five years and six months have elapsed from the complaint to the trial, that “such duration is not justified by the complexity of the cause” and that “the accused cannot be charged ”.
By having two extenuating circumstances and no aggravating circumstances, the Supreme Court explains that it is appropriate to lower the sentence from one to two degrees, for which it takes into account two aspects.
First, the prosecutor’s criteria, who pointed out that although the events occurred since 2007, they were not reported until 2015, so “the procedural strategy of not reporting sexual assaults in 2014 is not understood” when he denounced the abuse.
And after that even though the extenuation of drug addiction and/or drunkenness has not been appreciated, it is true that the woman has been stating throughout the proceedings that the defendant drank and used drugs, for which reason the sentence is reduced by two degrees .