A police officer is on trial accused of stealing the mobile phone of a man who had died in the street.

BarcelonaA member of the Catalan police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, could face a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for stealing the mobile phone and headphones of a man who had died in the street in Santa Coloma de Gramenet. The incident occurred in the fall of 2021, on a night when the officer was on duty. Around 9:30 p.m., he received a report of a deceased person in the street. According to the prosecution's indictment, after arriving at the location of the victim, the officer kept the iPhone 12 that the man had in his backpack before a colleague completed the chain of custody document for the deceased's belongings. Furthermore, the officer is also accused of appropriating the man's AirPods: once his colleague had searched the victim's belongings, the accused had to fill out the police report, at which point he allegedly stole the AirPods, taking advantage of the fact that the man was wearing other white headphones.

These events that have now brought the officer to trial date back to November 2, 2021, and the policeman now faces a conviction for misappropriation. The 3rd section of the Barcelona Provincial Court will try the officer this Tuesday, and the Public Prosecutor's Office has also asked the court to disqualify him from working in the Mossos d'Esquadra police force for the duration of his sentence.

850 euros

Neither the victim's iPhone nor AirPods have ever been recovered, and they are valued at 850 euros, which the prosecution is claiming as compensation for the victim's family. Should the defendant fail to return them, the Department of the Interior, as the subsidiary civilly liable party, would be responsible. In addition to the defendant, two officers from the Internal Affairs Division of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police), an officer from the Santa Coloma de Gramenet Local Police, and four of the defendant's fellow Mossos officers are also scheduled to testify as witnesses at the trial.