A man convicted of sexually assaulting a girl in Cádiz has managed to avoid going to prison, despite having breached a seven-year restraining order. The sentence, issued three months ago by the Provincial Court of Cádiz, was not duly notified, which allowed the convicted person to appear in the vicinity of the victim’s school, thus violating the prohibition of approaching less than 400 meters from her. The family’s lawyer, Juan Manuel Espinosa, has denounced this “serious bureaucratic error” which has left the aggressor free and the victim at risk.
The sentence, as explained by the lawyer, was in accordance because the family did not want the girl to have to go through the trauma of a trial and preferred to avoid the delay that a hearing and its subsequent appeals would have entailed. The man had admitted abusing the girl in his own home, to which she had gone because she was a friend of her son. He would not have to serve the two-year prison sentence, as long as he complied with the included measures, including not approaching the victim closer than 400 meters for seven years.
In September, just three months after the sentencing, he was seen by the girl’s mother at the school gates. In the quick trial held afterwards, the prosecution by the victim’s family and the Prosecutor’s Office requested the immediate imprisonment of the abuser. It was then that the man claimed not to have received the court order with the restraining order.
The trial court asked the Provincial Court for the signed official notification, but it confirmed that it had neither been made to sign after the sentence was read out loud, nor had it been sent to it in writing subsequently, hence the court could not attend to the prison request requested by the accusations.
According to the girl’s family lawyer, The man has once again violated the restraining order and there is no evidence that he has yet received the request prohibiting him from approaching the victim.
