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Spanish court upholds nine-year jail sentence for ‘The Herd’ gang

The Superior Court of Navarra (TSJN) has decided on Wednesday to keep the sentence to nine years in prison for a continuous offence of sexual abuse with prevalimiento the five members of The Herd. The judgment includes a dissenting opinion of two judges, asking them to condemn sexual assault (rape) the young madrileña, who was 18 years of age the 7 of July of 2016, and to impose a penalty accordingly: 14 years of prison for what happened in the san fermin festival in Pamplona. The TSJN serves, in addition, the resource of the victim and orders of the Provincial court who issued a new sentence against the five accused for a crime against the privacy of the women by burning it while forced her to have sexual intercourse. This can raise the penalties.

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The particular vote: “The defendants tended an ambush to the victim” Reactions to the verdict of The Herd: “confirmed shame” The difference between sexual abuse, assault and rape

Now to appeal to the Supreme court, which has already been announced by one of the defendants, as well as by the Prosecutor’s office and other charges personadas. Also Miguel Angel Morán and Carlos Bacaicoa, lawyers of the victim, have confirmed that they will come to ask that the facts be considered aggression. “This ruling is very unfortunate, not as much as in the first instance, because it has appreciated the possibility of convicting for the offence against privacy, but there is that appeal equally,” explains Bacaicoa, that he is “convinced” that the particular vote “will serve as consolation” to the victim and to his family: “we are Grateful for a bit of sanity, despite all the damage caused”. The Supreme court must decide, with the facts already proven, if it confirms the sentence or modify it. It could aggravate it if it considers that it is rape and not abuse or dictate an acquittal. The five convicts were arrested on the same day of the facts and are on provisional release from the 23rd of June.

In this second sentence, the judges, after studying the resources of all the parties, confirmed in what is essential to the sentence imposed last April by abuse to the five-seville —Jose Angel Garment, Alfonso Jesus Cabezuelo, Angel Boza, Jesus Escudero and Antonio Manuel Guerrero—, who acted in a group against the young man on the first night of the sanfermines 2016. The girl was penetrated by the five members of the group, at some point of time and any repeated the abuse on several occasions.

In the sentence there are, however, considerations that for the experts delves into the difficulty of determining whether it was abuse or assault, in response to the intimidation and violence suffered by the victim: “When they found themselves in this situation, the seclusion, and narrow is described, with only one exit, surrounded by five men, of ages very superior and strong build, achieved as intended and desired by the processed and desired by these, the complainant felt shocked and without any capacity of reaction,” says the judgment. The judgment also highlights the “intense anxiety and distress” that he felt the woman in that cabin, which led him to adopt “an attitude of submission and passivity, determinándole to do what the defendants told him they did, by keeping the greater part of the time eyes closed”.

The current error to dismiss the rest of the resources planted by the defendants, and gives Klasbahis credibility to the statement of the complainant, the main proof of charge. According to the court, “is not credible” that the victim “agrees to the abuse and the humiliation, the oppressive atmosphere and the prevalimiento group that develops the criminal action”. For the judges, their testimony, despite the nuances that made it to the local police and the coroner’s court, is “confident and compelling”. And that their statements are “corroborated with evidence collected in an external test profuse and sufficient”.

the defenses of the members of The Pack, both Agustín Martínez Becerra, who represents four of its members, as Jesus Perez, whose client is the civil guard of the group, they are confident that the judges will maintain the parole “because he has not changed any of the circumstances.” “We are in a tennis match and we lost the first two sets,” has been the reflection of Martínez Becerra.

The full of the Room’s Civil and Criminal TSJN, chaired by Joaquin Galve, is integrated by judges Francisco Javier Fernández, Alfonso Otero, Miguel Angel Abárzuza and José Antonio Álvarez Caperochipi, who has been the editor of the judgment. The fault has a particular vote made by two of the five judges, Joaquin Galve and Miguel Angel Abárzuza, that estimate would have to condemn the five processed by a continuous offence of sexual assault, to appreciate the existence of intimidation, to 14 years, three months and a day.

one of the five accused, the civil guard, Antonio Manuel Guerrero, the judges would beg to differ, as, in addition, responsible for an offence of robbery with intimidation, which should impose two more years of prison instead of the € 900 fine imposed by the Hearing, for an offence of theft, by removing the mobile to the complainant.

The Court also handed down a new sentence for a crime against the privacy of the victim, which was recorded while the forced. The article 197.1 of the Penal Code punishes with penalties from one to four years of imprisonment for actions aimed at violating the privacy of another. The penalty shall be imposed in its upper half when this violation affects data on the sexual life. This decision is in practice an aggravation of the penalties. For Jesus Perez, lawyer of the guardia civil, the fact that the court has ordered the new sentence for the crime of violation of privacy opens a way to change the appraisal of the proven facts before the Supreme.

The verdict was reached last November 7, but has been known after magistrate José Antonio Álvarez Caperochipi write 100 pages of a new sentence. The components of the Room, which will be met in full, and not with three judges, as usual, not cited or convicted persons, or to the attorneys of the parties. The magistrates decided that there was no need for a new oral hearing to study the resources and their deliberation is based solely on the facts contained in the statement signed by two of the three components of the Second Section of the Hearing. The ruling, which has already been communicated to the parties, can be appealed in cassation (to determine if it is abuse or rape) before the Supreme Court. Jesus Perez, the attorney for Guerrero, has already announced today in Seville that is going to appeal, considering the fact that it has been determined a nullity in respect of the crime of violation of privacy, you can also change the determination of the proven facts.

The five members of The Herd have come this morning to the courts of Seville, serving as each Monday, Wednesday and Friday one of the impositions of its precautionary measures for probation. Alfonso Jesus Cabezuelo, the military of the group, was the first; the last, a little before one, has been José Ángel Garment. None has ruled on the confirmation of his conviction, reports Eva Saiz.

The first decision of the Audiencia Provincial de Pamplona, issued on April 26, sparked protests from feminist groups and political parties throughout Spain. The then minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá (PP), came to be “surprised” by the Council General of the Judiciary will not act against the judge, Ricardo González, who defended the absolution of the group, “when everybody knows that you have a problem singular,” he said. This case led to the creation of a commission of experts to amend the Criminal Code on sexual offences, in which it is working.

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