The audience in Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man to 31 years imprisonment for assaulting a woman at dawn whilst she was opening an office situated in the well-known Olympo building. He delivered a “severe beating,” sexually assaulted her multiple times, and held her captive in the premises during the incident that took place in January 2023.
The verdict finds the defendant, a 24-year-old Moroccan national, guilty of an ongoing crime of rape in conjunction with aggravated robbery and unlawful detention, as well as a count of aggravated assault and a charge of making threats.
Additionally, he has been ordered to pay a fine of €75,000 and is subject to a restraining order following his release from prison, with a possibility of expulsion from the country.
The incident occurred around 6:00 AM on January 4, 2023, when the defendant, who had arrived in Lanzarote four days earlier by boat, approached the victim, who was on her way to work at the offices in the Olympo building of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The defendant followed the victim and, as she opened the premises, lunged at her and pushed her inside.
The sentence acknowledges that he delivered a “brutal series of blows” to the woman and that even when the victim was unable to defend herself, he continued to attack her.
Once he left her incapacitated, the man repeatedly raped her, subsequently stealing €30 and her shoes, and threatening to kill her if she reported the incident.
The defendant confined the woman in the office, and about an hour later, she managed to alert her husband and her boss, who promptly contacted the police and emergency services.
The man was found at the tram stop while attempting to return to the area of the lagoon where he was staying.
The victim’s recovery required 180 days during which she could not engage in her usual activities and suffers from, among other effects, depressive episodes, anxiety, panic attacks, feelings of helplessness, dizziness, psychological distress, and severe stress.
The ruling, which is not yet final, mostly aligns with the facts presented by the prosecution – also partly acknowledged by the defence – and is based on the testimonies from the janitor, cleaning staff, police, and medical and psychological expert evaluations.
The ruling places significant emphasis on the video recordings from the security cameras of the building and its vicinity, as they enabled a reconstruction of the events and identification of the perpetrator, whose arrest was executed immediately.
Other evidence included fingerprints discovered inside the office and genetic material found on the victim’s clothing and body.
