A witness in the case investigating the alleged mistreatment of a baby by a couple has testified that the man was shaking the infant's crib violently. According to legal sources consulted by ARA, this is the woman with whom they shared a room at Vall d'Hebron Hospital, where the medical staff referred them after they had visited four other health centers in the days before the couple's arrest. The same woman alerted hospital staff that the child was not being well cared for, all just hours before the child abuse protocol was activated.

The inhabitants of the French village of Hagenbach, with only 800 residents, cannot come to terms with it. In this Alsatian municipality, a father locked his son inside a van parked in front of the family home for almost a year and a half, forcing him to relieve himself in bags and bringing him food only twice a day. He did not go to school, had not showered, nor had he had contact with anyone during all this time. The French gendarmerie rescued him after a complaint last week from a neighbor who had heard a child's voice inside the vehicle. The officers found the boy, who is now nine years old, naked, in a fetal position, and malnourished. He was unable to walk.

A few days ago, a news story broke in the media that chilled us. It was, presumably, one of the most harrowing cases of violence against a baby by its parents that has been disclosed. As soon as it became known – and in the supposed search for context – several media outlets emphasized an aspect of this context that immediately aroused my indignation as a social work professional for 30 years. The greatest surprise of pundits and supposed 'experts' was how this situation had occurred, given that it involved a family they described as 'normal.' In this context, 'normal' referred to the fact that they lived in a neighborhood not designated as an area at risk of social exclusion, the father and mother worked, and furthermore, the mother was a nurse. In short – and without calling it such – it was defined as a family that had no financial problems. Thus, when reference was made to a "normal" family in these terms, it follows that all families with a situation of economic precariousness are not normal and, on the other hand, I also deduce from the context that what is said without being said is that, in families where there is no poverty, it is not usual for violence to occur or we have no way of explaining it. It seems particularly interesting to me to emphasize what is the mental framework that underlies half-said words. These frameworks can often determine people's lives without express intent. In this case, we are talking about stigma towards poverty, now called aporophobia. Under this classist premise, we understand that children in economically vulnerable families are always at risk and, therefore, under observation, control, and suspicion. On the other hand, those children for whom – due to the economic situation of their living environment – there are no mechanisms that allow the alarm bell to be sounded, may be experiencing situations of neglect or physical, psychological, or emotional violence without any protection mechanism being deployed, except in cases of extreme severity like this one.Although, in general, there is a high level of professionalism in the various public systems for child and adolescent protection, as well as in the health system, stigma can operate and does operate both at a structural level and in the specific area of individual perception. Stigma leads us to accept as a society a system where all children who attend only private circuits (especially educational and health) do not receive the same level of control as in the public sphere. Precisely because we think that in “normal” families all this does not happen. And, on the other hand, we have also accepted that the places where families go to request economic aid for situations of economic vulnerability are analyzed from top to bottom. Everything is understood and explainable from a particular analysis, but the final result is a structural classism and often racism that presents a bias in the social perception regarding the relationship between violence and economic inequality.

The defense of the baby's father, who is being investigated for alleged abuse and sexual assault by his parents, has requested new medical tests to determine the origin of the injuries for which he remains hospitalized. His lawyer, Montse Antolino, explained in statements to ARA that she has presented the investigating judge with a medical report signed by a private physician stating that the man carries a gene related to muscular dystrophy and collagen deficiency. The defense now requests clarification as to whether the baby also carries this gene and if it could be the cause or trigger of the injuries.

The new court for violence against children and adolescents in Barcelona has received around 300 cases in its first quarter of operation. This court has been functioning since January 1st in the Catalan capital and among the crimes it has most handled are those related to child abuse and sexual assault on minors, according to judicial sources told ARA. In fact, it is responsible for investigating the case of the baby who remains hospitalized for alleged mistreatment and sexual assault by its parents. mistreatment and sexual assault allegedly by their parents.

These days we have learned of two news items that occurred in Catalonia, both very difficult to digest: the abuse of a child, allegedly caused by its parents, and the euthanasia that the woman who had requested it finally received and that her father had been preventing in the courts for almost two years. These are not just any two news items. And, precisely because they attract our attention, we cannot dwell on the morbid and must take them very seriously. And that means avoiding summary judgments without foundation and obvious statements of no interest.

According to theMonthly Statistical Report of the DGAIAAccording to a report from the Catalan Agency for Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) in February 2025, 1.4% of Catalan children and adolescents have experienced or are still experiencing situations of abuse, neglect, or family abandonment. The percentage is likely higher, as this figure is based only on reported cases. Globally, according to UNICEF According to the WHO, 6 out of 10 children under the age of 5 experience some form of physical, emotional, or sexual violence. In total, it is estimated that nearly 1 billion children may have been exposed to this violence in the past year—figures that are absolutely chilling.

A man has been sentenced to ten and a half years in prison for abusing his one-month-old son in Montblanc. The man caused injuries that required surgery and one ICU admission in 2019The child suffers after-effects that, now that he is five years old and under the guardianship of the Generalitat (Catalan government), have resulted in a 70% disability. The ruling by the Tarragona Court ultimately acquitted the mother, who was also held in pretrial detention under investigation for the abuse.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested an imam from the Marca del Ham neighborhood of Figueres for mistreatment of minors who attended the mosque he led. According to police sources, he used a rigid cane or an open hand to beat children who attended the religious center to pray and learn Arabic. After the incidents occurred several times, it was the families of the neighborhood's Muslim community who alerted the police and removed him from his duties.

A victim's testimony is key to investigating any crime and identifying the suspect, so much so that it can be sufficient evidence for a conviction. However, what happens when the victim is a child and, due to their age, cannot offer a testimony as clear and detailed as an adult? Especially in crimes that are often committed in secret, such as sexual assaults, it is more difficult to determine the perpetrator. In this regard, several Catalan lawyers report that cases of this type often end up closed before the judicial investigation begins, not due to a lack of evidence but because the perpetrator cannot be identified.

The Spanish Parliament has given the green light this Thursday to the organic law for the protection of children and adolescents, with only PNV and Vox voting against it. The law aims to have the same impact in the field of child abuse as the law against gender violence had in 2004. In this sense, the main novelty of the law is that the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against children will not start to run until the victim turns 35, while now it was triggered at the age of 18. This meant that an abuse penalised with ten years in prison would prescribe five years after the victim turned 18. Often, however, it took victims many more years to become aware of the abuse or to muster enough courage to report the aggressor, and this meant that in many cases the justice system found that the alleged crimes were already time-barred.