Sentence Overview
The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man to 15 years in prison and ordered him to pay €60,000 in compensation for sexually assaulting the underage daughter of his partner over several years, resulting in her pregnancy.
Details of the Case
The ruling indicates that the man exploited the fact that he lived with his ex-partner and her daughter since the girl was very young, making him the only father figure she had known.
According to the judicial text, the man subjected the minor to numerous sexual assaults until she eventually filed a report following the birth of her child.
The judgement confirms that the assaults occurred while the mother was working, leaving the girl in the man’s care and continued until her adolescence, ceasing when the minor became a mother herself.
Details of the Birth
The girl was born with a 95% disability due to the conditions surrounding her birth in the same home where they lived, with the man having raped her mother shortly before delivery, according to the ruling.
During the trial, the defendant was evicted twice from the courtroom for expressing disagreement with the duty lawyer provided to him and questioning the fairness of the trial.
His lawyer claimed he was innocent, and asserted that if guilty, he should not receive more than ten years in prison, adding that the origin of the assaults was due to the girl being in love with him and questioning the man’s masculinity if he did not sleep with her.
The verdict confirms that during the years of abuse, the accused warned the minor that the matter was a secret between them, which her mother must not know about. In some instances, he even offered her money to overcome her reluctance, as occurred during a holiday.
Local police who attended on June 3, 2023, when the birth took place, noted that the young woman was “too withdrawn”, “in shock”, and her responses were “very brief”, which did not match the expected joy of welcoming a new child.
When asked about the father, she stated that he was a boy from Fuerteventura, who, upon learning of her pregnancy, had blocked her on her phone and social media.
