The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has dismissed the appeal filed by a man sentenced to eight years in prison by the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for sexually assaulting a minor under 14 years on the outskirts of a nightclub in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The sentence, made public this Wednesday, states that the events occurred in the early morning of July 21, 2019 when the minor was leaving the disco and was preparing to greet a friend but on the road, dark and without people around, she interposed the condemned.
The man, who had seen the victim on several occasions and told her that she was going to be his girlfriend, took advantage of the help of two friends, who immobilized her, to touch her breasts and try to kiss her and touch her private parts.
Given the minor’s resistance, he broke a bottle against a wall and hit the minor in the face.
As a consequence of these events, the young woman began to scream for help, for which a group of young people showed up and a fight began that ended when a local police patrol arrived.
The Chamber accepts the “truthfulness” of the victim’s statement in the oral trial against the appeal of the defense that has claimed lack of evidence and also rules out “alleged xenophobia” given that the minor’s fear “of leaving alone” and to the Maghrebis begins as a result of the attack.
The sentence also states that there are no contradictions in the statements of the minor and that both met at the health center to heal from their injuries and it was the minor herself who, “nervous and crying”, recounted the facts to the agents of the police. Local Police who had participated in breaking up the fight.
Likewise, it endorses the payment of compensation of 3,180 euros to the minor for moral damages given that the young woman “has not been the same since she suffered the attack, being afraid to leave the house, trusting only in people very close to her her and avoiding all contact with unknown people, her state is nervous and continuous irritation.
