He Criminal Court of Santa Cruz de The Palm has sentenced the former director of a center for people with disabilities in Los Llanos de Aridane, dependent on the Cabildo, to three years and nine months in prison for subjecting its residents to degrading practices, such as rubbing their faces with their own feces or pouring water on them cold from the fridge.
The sentencefor three continuous crimes against moral integrity, includes compensation of 5,000 euros for moral damages to the legal representatives of each of the three victims, all with a degree of disability greater than 79% and diagnosed with severe and severe mental retardation.
This economic compensation is attributed to the defendant “without prejudice to the subsidiary civil liability” of the company Servicio Canario para la Dependencia SL (Sercade), in charge of managing the center, and of the Island Council, owner of the facility.
The judgment acquits the defendant of the same crimes in relation to four other residents, having not been duly proven.
On this case, which began due to a complaint from the Prosecutor’s Office, there was already a sentence of the Provincial Court in June 2021, but it was annulled, for which reason the oral trial has been repeated between June 12 and 15 of this anus.
He fiscal Ministery He requested a conviction for seven crimes against as many residents, although in the end only three of them are included.
The defendant worked in the Triana Disabled Centerin Los Llanos de Aridane, from November 18, 2008 to March 17, 2013 as a psychologist and later as director, until he was dismissed by the Cabildo.
The sentence declares it proven that the defendant subjected three inmates to abusive isolation in the so-called “re-educational space”, where they were deprived of the company of the rest of the inmates and the center’s staff for a long time.
Another practice was pouring bottles of cold water taken from the refrigerator in order to correct certain behaviors.
He also used physical restraint mechanisms with mechanical restraints abusively and arbitrarily.
In the case of one of the residents, the Court considers it proven that he rubbed his own feces and urine on his face and mouth to correct sphincter control and left him with his clothes wet from his urine for a long time.
Another of the proven crimes is the use of “pictographic techniques” that violate the privacy of a resident in which he appears naked or doing his physiological needs.
The judge also considers it accredited that there was violent behavior with two residents, although there are no reports of injuries.
Other practices for which he was accused, such as increasing psychiatric medication and ordering restriction of food, have not been proven in this sentence, against which an appeal can be made before the Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
In the sentence, the defendant is sentenced for three crimes against moral integrity with the concurrence of the aggravating circumstance of superiority and the mitigation of undue delays to one year and three months in prison for each of them.
You are also disqualified from carrying out any work activity with people with disabilities, minors, the elderly or any vulnerable person during the time of the sentence.
