When Juan José M. G., who lives in an isolated estate in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, suggested to his childhood friend to come to Gran Canaria to spend a weekend with him, she didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation. She had nothing to fear because they had already lived together before and had maintained a close relationship since the woman started dating his sister in high school. However, what she found upon arrival was a man who was almost unrecognizable due to drug and alcohol abuse, and the situation escalated to the point where she feared for her life after allegedly experiencing a sexual assault, as she stated on Tuesday during the trial before the First Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas.
The first person who found the complainant on the morning of October 13, 2020 was a water supply worker who was working near the accused’s property when he came across a woman with a red mark on her face. “A scared girl peeked out and asked me to get her out of there, repeating: he hit me, he’s going to kill me,” the witness recounted. He offered to take her in his car to the nearest town, but her fear did not subside. “She was agitated, crying, and looking behind as if someone was after her. She was coming as if the devil was behind her,” he added.
Once in the town, the owner of a local restaurant and a passing driver decided to help her. The woman told them that she had a problem with a man, and the witnesses could see that “she had bruises on her arms,” so one of the neighbours decided to lend her a hand and take her to the airport to catch the first flight back to Tenerife: “I did a good deed for that girl. In the state she was in, anyone would have done the same.” Once in the safety of the vehicle, the complainant revealed that the accused had forced her to have sexual intercourse and had kept her confined in his house.
The accused, who faces a ten-year prison sentence, denied the version of the alleged victim and attributed the accusation to her being “resentful” towards him, but “she does not realize the seriousness of him having forced her to perform a sexual act, that’s not true.” The bruises that one of the witnesses saw are, according to his version, the result of a fall the complainant suffered that weekend while picking almonds.
Shaking and arguments
Juan José M. G. claimed that on the night from Saturday to Sunday, when the events allegedly took place, he left the house around three in the morning to visit his cousin in Vecindario and do drugs together. He stated that he returned to the house at seven in the morning and found his friend angry because he had left alone. They started arguing, during which the woman insisted on wanting to return to Tenerife, but he said he couldn’t take her yet because he was not fit to drive and had to wait for two people to come and install the fibre optic.
“During the argument, she pushed me and I pushed her away. She might have gotten a bruise from shaking her to make her leave,” the accused stated. The alleged perpetrator admitted that a few hours earlier, he had also been upset with her because he thought she was recording him and reacted by throwing her phone to the ground.
The complainant, on the other hand, maintained that the problems began from the Friday afternoon when she arrived on the island and had to take a taxi because the accused had not shown up at the airport. When she saw him, “it was clear he was drunk,” and the taxi driver warned her: “madam, don’t go with this man.” They had consensual sexual relations on the first night, but on Saturday afternoon, things started to unravel once Juan José M. G. began drinking. “When he returned the next morning, he took off the little clothing I had, shook me around, and forced me to perform oral sex on him. In the end, he said: leave because otherwise I will do something crazy,” the complainant claimed. The trial has been adjourned for sentencing.
