The rapist of the woman who was left without a public defender is sentenced

BarcelonaSix years in prison for sexual assault, degrading treatment and threats. This is the sentence that the Barcelona Court has handed down this Tuesday to the man who was tried for sexually assaulting Yaqui in April 2021, and which is included in a sentence to which the ARA has had access. At that time, she did not have papers and was looking for work as a caregiver on the Milanuncios portal. The man, who was 68 years old, contacted her and took her to an apartment in El Prat de Llobregat making her believe that she was going to a job interview. There he sexually assaulted her. After the assault, the convicted man warned the victim that if she reported him he would have her deported.

The threat caused Yaqui to postpone the complaint until nine months later, when the Mossos d'Esquadra got in touch believing that it could be related to another case they were investigating. Finally, Yaqui decided to initiate legal proceedings, accompanied by lawyer Carolina Gallego, until the verdict on Tuesday.

Gallego was appointed as a public defender to assist Yaqui when she decided to file a complaint, but the complainant soon ran into a bureaucratic loophole that left her without free legal assistance. Lacking papers, she could not prove her income level. "How could I prove that I did not have enough income if I did not have a contract and could not file a tax return?" she asked. in a conversation with NOW hours before the trial. However, Gallego has represented the Yaqui outside the circuit of public defenders, and for a symbolic fee compared to his usual fees.

Eight years of separation

The Barcelona Court's ruling, which can be appealed, also imposes a restraining order on the man for up to eight years after his release from prison, and establishes that, once he is released from prison, he will have to spend five years on probation. However, the sentence is far from the identical requests made by the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution on behalf of Yaqui, who demanded 12 years in prison for the man.

At the trial, the defendant's defense presented two audio recordings to try to exonerate him by claiming that they were conversations between him and Yaqui, although she said she did not recognize herself. During the alleged conversation, he repeatedly asked her if she had liked the time they had spent together and how much he should pay her in exchange for sex. The court has not given credibility to the recordings, nor to a photograph that the defendant presented with the intention of showing that the victim left his house without any injury and putting on a good face. At the same trial, he acknowledged that it was the image of another woman.