18 Sex Com

18 Sex Com

This content is not available in your region

Is Spain's new rape law reducing jail sentences of sex offenders?

Comments

By Laura Llach • Updated: 18/11/2022
- 15:50

A protest against sexist sexual violence, in Pamplona, northern Spain.

-
Copyright
Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo, FILE
Women during a protest in Pamplona, Spain after the gang rape of a minor. Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo, FILE

English

Français

Deutsch

Italiano

Español

Português

Русский

Türkçe

Ελληνικά

Magyar

فارسی

العربية

Shqip

Română

ქართული

български

Srpski

Antonio S., an English teacher in Madrid who was jailed for three crimes of sexual abuse, was released from prison last month after a new Spanish rape law came into effect.
The law was meant to be stricter than the previous code in place, but instead resulted in the teacher serving only half of his jail sentence since the crime he was convicted of was not included in the new law.
He had paid students to perform sexual acts, offering to pay €1,200 to one of them for fellatio who rejected it.
Antonio S. is now one of many sex offenders who are benefiting from what experts have said is a loophole in the new law that was meant to be a win for victims of sexual abuse.
All of the minors targeted by Antonio S. were between 16 and 17 years old and were his students, former students or their friends.
Following a complaint in 2019, the teacher was arrested when eight of the boys accused him in a trial that took place in December 2021.
"He was accused of a dozen offences of a sexual nature, corruption of minors, prostitution of minors etc. The prosecution was asking for 40 years in prison and €40,000 for the victims," Alvaro García-Olay Samaniego, the teacher's lawyer, told Euronews.
On 28 September this year, eight days after the new Spanish rape legislation known as the "only yes is yes" law came into force , the Madrid Provincial Court contacted García-Olay in writing.
"It was ex officio, without us asking for it. The court warned us that this new law was going to come into force and that we could present (a request) to release my client immediately," said the lawyer, who added that this procedure is not usual in other cases.
While the teacher had already been tried, Spain's Criminal Code establishes a principle that allows new criminal laws to be retroactively applied -- only if doing so benefits the defendant.
In the new law, "as abuse and sexual assault have been merged (into one single crime), now everything is considered assault," the lawyer explained.
"In my client's case there was no violence, so it has been decriminalised. That's why he was immediately released from prison", the lawyer said.
Before this year's reform, article 182 of Spain's Criminal Code condemned a person who exploited a position of power to abuse a victim between 16 and 18 years of age.
"Exerting influence to commit sexual abuse or allowing oneself to be abused, which used to be considered a minor misconduct, is no longer a crime. And, since it is no longer a crime, he has to be released," said Concepción Roig, spokesperson for Judges for Democracy.
All eyes turn to Irene Montero, the equality minister who was the leading promoter behind the legal reform and now faces intense criticism from other opposition parties, civil society, judicial organisations and even some of her political allies.
"Thanks to Irene Montero, (under the new law) my client would have only spent a year in jail. We were not able to get him acquitted, it was the Ministry of Equality," said García-Olay Samaniego.
The lawyer explained his request to release the convicted teacher was written on half a sheet of paper. The Public Prosecutor's Office opposed it but had no legal standing to stop the request.
In total, Antonio has effectively served three years in prison, even though under the new law, he only needed to serve 15 months.
His lawyer now plans to request compensation from the Spanish state for the extra time served.
The Madrid teacher's case is not the only one to cause a stir in recent days.
After this new rape law entered into force on 7 October, there have been a growing number of court rulings to reduce the sentences of sex offenders who were convicted under the previous legislation.
At the moment, there are 14 reduced sentences for sexual abuse in Spain, with most of the cases in Madrid.
The controversy arises from the fact that the new law removes the distinction between sexual abuse and sexual aggression, experts say.
Sexual aggression involved the use of violence or intimidation while sexual abuse implied other types of means, explains José Luis Díez Ripollés, professor of Criminal Law at the University of Málaga.
"This new law was made to give more importance to the role of consent. So, regardless of whether violence or intimidation is used or not, all behaviour that is not consensual must be condemned in the same way," Díez told Euronews.
"By putting assault and abuse together in the same offence, they have tried to find a middle ground for the penalties," he added.
"As they could not use the penal framework for assaults because it was too harsh for sexual abuse and they could not use the one for sexual abuse because it was too light for assaults, they decided to put the maximum limit for assaults with the minimum for abuse," he said.
The result has been a wide range of sentences from just a fine in the lightest cases to 15 years in prison for the most serious ones, by lowering the minimum sentences and increasing the maximum ones.
Sexual assault with penetration, which was punished with a minimum of six years in prison, is now punishable by four years.
"The decision to combine assault and abuse together was technically defective. We warned about this before the law was passed," said Díez.
"It was a mistake. The old law was very well drafted. But this has been an ideological reform in which they did not take into account how the Criminal Code works," he added.
According to Manuel Cancio Meliá, Professor of Criminal Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, a person who has already been convicted, even if they were sentenced, should not have past laws applied to them unless it benefits their case.
"This is why cases in which the sentence has been reduced must now be reviewed. Spanish courts must do this ex officio or at the request of the convicted person, even if he or she is already serving the sentence," he told Euronews.
Cancio Meliá argues that the courts are doing this in a very mechanical way.
"They have to look at the case properly. This law is a mixture of offences that were previously separate, so they should look carefully at what happened in each case," he added.
"It shouldn't be argued that, because the article is the same but the sentencing is more lenient, courts should review all cases."
Yet courts face a difficult task because while they can interpret laws, they cannot reinterpret the facts by adding aggravating circumstances or maintaining a sentence that exceeds the limit imposed by the new law.
"Criminal law works according to certain rules, and we judges have to comply with those rules because we understand that if laws evolve, it is because society has evolved," said Roig, spokesperson at Judges for Democracy.
Spain's equality ministry however has blamed the actions of judges.
Minister Irene Montero said the reduction of sentences is due to judges "breaking the law" as a result of "machismo" and defended the effectiveness of the original text.
"This is not because we judges are sexist, nor because the law has a crack in it," counters Roig.
"If the image of those who have to protect the victims, who are the judges, is tarnished in this way, the only thing they will achieve is that the victims will not come forward to denounce (sexual violence)," argued the spokesperson in reference to the minister's statements, which were widely criticised.
"The law has gone through the entire parliamentary process and no amendments were made. The legislator has decided and we have to apply it," she added.
The decision is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, where several appeals of sexual offence sentences requesting that Spain's new law be taken into account have been tabled.
The tribunal is expected to rule in the coming weeks on how the new law affects cases tried under the previous legislation and its decision will set the path for the High Courts and Provincial Courts.
The aim is to unify the criteria for some cases and avoid disparate rulings.

Hearing set in Iowa teen sex trafficking victim Pieper Lewis' escape case
Hearing set in Iowa teen sex trafficking victim Pieper Lewis' escape case
Share your feedback to help improve our site!
In a brief proceeding Friday, a Polk County judge set a Jan. 18 evidentiary hearing in connection with the escape of Pieper Lewis, a sex trafficking victim who in a case that drew national attention received probation at Fresh Start Women's Center in Des Moines after killing a man she said had raped her.
Lewis, who recently turned 18, faces being ordered to prison after cutting off a GPS tracking device she was required to wear and leaving the women's center Nov. 4. Des Moines police arrested her Nov. 8, and she remains in the Polk County Jail on misdemeanor escape charge.
She pleaded guilty in June 2021 to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury in the stabbing death a year earlier of Zachary Brooks, a 37-year-old father of three. Then 15, she said a 28-year-old man who trafficked and sexually abused her had sent her to Brooks, who repeatedly raped her. Though the man has not been charged, prosecutors acknowledged during Lewis' September sentencing that she had been a victim of sex trafficking.
She faced up to 20 years in prison for the killing, but Judge David Porter gave her a deferred sentence and placed her on five years' probation, telling her she was getting a one-and-only "second chance."
Authorities have not said whether Lewis has told them why she left the women's center. Prosecutors in a probation revocation report asked for the deferred judgement to be revoked and for her original sentence to be imposed. Court documents do not provide the terms of that original sentence, which weren't revealed at her sentencing hearing.
Lewis did not appear at Friday's hearing. Her attorney, Matthew Sheeley, said afterward that the Jan. 18 hearing will concern evidence about Lewis' escape.
As part of Lewis' sentence, Porter also her to pay $150,000 to Brooks' family, as required by state law of people convicted of homicide. A GoFundMe fundraiser to help Lewis pay the restitution raised more than $500,000.
For now, the money remains with the GoFundMe organization as Lewis' attorneys await a response to their request that Porter overturn the restitution order . It's unclear how Lewis' escape will affect those proceedings.
Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

By Gina Agapiou November 18, 2022 1 Comment 97
Andria Kades November 18, 2022 November 18, 2022
Source: Cyprus News Agency November 18, 2022 November 18, 2022
Nikolaos Prakas November 18, 2022 November 18, 2022
Gina Agapiou November 18, 2022 November 18, 2022

Privacy Policy
|
Terms & Conditions

@2021 - Cyprus - mail . com . All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Cyprus Mail
@2018 - PenNews. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign
Sex education needs to have a place in teaching as part of a broader government strategy to protect children from sexual abuse, children’s rights commissioner Despo Michaelidou said on Friday.
Marking the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse on November 18, Michaelidou noted the state has a duty in educating parents on the matter too, so they are always alert and aware of the crucial role they have in helping their children.
“Sexual abuse is one of the worst forms of violence against a child. This day is one to serve as a reminder. A reminder to society and states to protect the rights of children against sexual violence.”
The day should be commemorated as a collective effort for zero tolerance against child abuse and taking drastic measures to protect them, she added.
Measures taken should aim to prevent and protect children from sexual abuse, as well as constantly evaluate dangers leading to sexual abuse, trafficking, harassment or any other situation which may have a negative impact on a child’s physical, emotional or psychological wellbeing.
Proper sex education should offer young people information important for their age, culture and opportunities to have an informed opinion about matters which concern them.
Last week, figures revealed 1,500 sexually abused children have turned to the Children’s House under the auspices of Hope for Children since 2017. The year 2021 had the biggest recorded spike of incidents, at 481 cases.
The figures reveal that 74.7 per cent of incidents were against females, and 25.3 per cent were on males. Perpetrators were primarily men, at 74.4 per cent.
We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.
You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings .
As is common practice with almost all professional websites, https://cyprus-mail.com (our “ Site ”) uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your device, to improve your experience.
This document describes what information they gather, how we use it, and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the Site’s functionality.
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately, in most cases, there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to the site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not, in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
The types of cookies used on this Site can be classified into one of three categories:
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser’s “Help” option on how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Therefore, it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.
In some special cases, we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. Our Site uses [Google Analytics] which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solutions on the web for helping us to understand how you use the Site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the Site and the pages that you visit so that we can continue to produce engaging content. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
Google Analytics is Google’s analytics tool that helps our website to understand how visitors engage with their properties. It may use a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. The main cookie used by Google Analytics is the ‘__ga’ cookie.
In addition to reporting website usage statistics, Google Analytics can also be used, together with some of the advertising cookies, to help show more relevant ads on Google properties (like Google Search) and across the web and to measure interactions with the ads Google shows.
An IP address is a numeric code that identifies your device on the Internet. We might use your IP address and browser type to help analyze usage patterns and diagnose problems on this Site and improve the service we offer to you. But without additional information, your IP address does not identify you as an individual.
When you accessed this Site, our cookies were sent to your web browser and stored on your device. By using our Site, you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies.
Hopefully, the above information has clarified things for you. As it was previously mentioned, if you are not sure whether you want to allow the cookies or not, it is usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it interacts with one of the features you use on our Site. However, if you are still looking for more information, then feel free to contact us via email at info@cyprus-mail.com
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Looks like you're using an ad blocker. We rely on advertising to help fund our site.

Pure Taboo New
Japanese Mom Porn Album
Sex Hair Salon

18 Sex Com

Report Page