The new court for violence against children in Barcelona receives 300 cases in just three months

BarcelonaThe 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.

Among the crimes that have most reached this court are also child pornography and the discovery of secrets, mainly for capturing images of minors in changing rooms or public restrooms, as happened a few weeks ago in a primary care center (CAP) in the Eixample. Another crime that is focusing the agenda of this new body is the non-payment of alimony in separated couples with children, which accounts for approximately 20% of the cases accumulated since the beginning of the year, according to judicial sources.

This new judicial specialty focused on violence against minors did not exist before the efficiency law reform, and it was first tested in Gran Canaria. Finally, it has been implemented in only three cities in the entire State: Barcelona, Madrid, and Malaga, with one position each. In the Catalan capital, it is occupied by magistrate Guillermo Benlloch, and he is responsible for all cases in which the victims are minors. Judicial sources doubt whether a single judge in Barcelona will be sufficient for the volume of cases in the area of violence against children, and they point out the difficulties in assuming ordinary work beyond emergencies.

Promote rapid trials

To speed up cases, one of the things they have put into practice in this new court is to process pension non-payments through the fast-track trial procedure, which account for approximately one-fifth of the cases Benlloch has on his table and which Supreme Court jurisprudence considers economic violence that harms both children and the parent who does not receive the pension, practically always women. When this is the case, it implies a crime of sexist violence that can be processed as a fast-track trial. In fact, since the judicial specialty of violence against children was created, there have been different doubts about competencies that could overlap between these courts and those for violence against women.

Until now, only in Gran Canaria had an attempt been made to deal with this crime through this route, taking advantage of the fact that the investigation of this crime is as simple as checking the financial situation of the accused and verifying whether or not they have made the necessary payments. Penal lawyer Noemí Martí explains that, in the fast-track trial procedure, the entire investigation of the case is carried out in a single day, during the same on-call shift in which the court received the complaint. If the offender confesses and reaches an agreement with the prosecution, the law provides for a one-third reduction in the sentence, and the court will issue the judgment that same day. If there is no agreement, the trial will be scheduled for the following weeks, and in the case of pension non-payments, the accused will face up to one year in prison.

In Barcelona, the initial assessment of this method is positive. "If we manage to process non-payments through fast-track trials, judicial procedures are significantly shortened. It benefits the accused because they can opt for a one-third sentence reduction if they confess, and the woman because the timelines are shortened," says Martí. In fact, judicial sources assure that many offenders opt to confess and take advantage of the sentence reduction in view of the possibility of going to trial. In other cases, the same sources point out, the mere fact of having a pending trial or an accusation against them leads many men to resume paying pensions even before the hearing.