“Did you know if he was 15 or not? “This is what needs to be debated,” opened the report of prosecutor Ángel Demetrio de la Cruz after two long hours of trial in the Toledo provincial court, where the alleged victim was heard sobbing during his interrogation. “He has the obligation to know whether he was under 16 or not,” insisted De la Cruz, calling the accused’s version “absurd.” “I knew I was 15; “The witnesses say they knew it”, underlined the presenter of the Public Ministry after attributing a sentence to the accused: “There is happiness in ignorance”.
In prison since the end of March last year, Luis Ernesto said he believed the alleged victim was an adult, even though the charges allege he was at his fifteenth birthday party. “I had known her for a long time and I didn’t know she was 15 years old. If I find out your age, you won’t come to my house. I acknowledge the sex, but she didn’t ask me to stop. “We were surrounded by girls and I had no need to sleep with minors,” this man in his thirties declared in court. “I am the first not to tolerate something like that, because I have a sister and my daughters,” he defended himself against the accusation of the minor, the daughter of a woman with whom he had had sexual relations, according to what he declared.
The events occurred on June 18, 2022, according to the prosecution’s account, although the defense dates them to another date. In any case, they agree that they broke out at dawn in the room of a country house in the Toledo town of Sonseca, during an “after party” with music, DJ, alcohol and drugs. After five and a half hours, several dozen young people arrived there, including the inmate and the minor, who had met at “Family”, a nightclub in this town of more than 11,000 inhabitants. However, the young woman did not file a complaint until nine months later.
In the courtroom, he said she made advances and kissed him outside the house, on the porch of the plot, while the complainant said Luis Ernesto had her tricked into showing her cats so she would enter the house. He thus managed to lock her in a room and sexually abuse her. “He forced me and I told him to do what he wanted,” the young woman sobbed during her statement, which had to be interrupted for a few minutes.
Everyone’s version is supported by witnesses. The girl’s mother described a picture of anxiety and depression, accompanied by at least one suicide attempt, supported by a forensic psychologist. “I saw her badly” during the interview, declared this professional, and his account “is compatible with the facts reported”. “There are no contradictions and it is consistent”, thus destroying the defense thesis, which emphasized that there were no injuries to the vagina and cited a lack of plausibility in the various statements of the young woman during the intervention.
The accused, for whom the charges require the aggravating circumstance of recidivism, faces twelve years in prison for an offense of sexual assault with vaginal carnal access, in addition to two others for threats. This is what the prosecution and the private prosecution are asking for, in relation to the acquittal that the defense is asking for.
“No one was forced. “There are witnesses who say she entered voluntarily!” argued her lawyer, Antonio Sedeño, who criticized the fact that the young girl denounced a long time later. “There is a spurious motive for revenge,” said Luis Ernesto’s lawyer. Convinced that the alleged victim, her mother and some friends did not tell the truth or changed their testimony in court, he also argued that his client’s fundamental rights had been violated during the investigation.
