Roger LC, a caregiver at the Ramón y Cajal hospital at the time of the events, must serve 13 years and one day in prison for the attack on a young patient suffering from psychiatric problems who had just attempted suicide due to her illness . The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has just ratified the sentence of the Provincial Court, after an appeal by the prisoner in which, among other things, he argued in his favor that the victim (represented by the criminal lawyer Juan Manuel Medina) “had already had more sex previously, which denotes a positive connotation towards sexuality.
Something which would endorse, as this “reasoning” shows, a sort of open bar for abusing women, particularly the most defenseless. The Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJM, in a judgment to which ABC had access, did not admit the appeal.
The experts, however, noted that the young woman, then aged 18, “was in a personal situation of particular vulnerability, due to the underlying clinical pathology, the reason for her admission after a suicide attempt and her subsequent clinical course. “.
The proven facts occurred in the spring of 2021. The offender worked as a night guard in the psychiatric department, in the brief hospitalization unit. He took advantage of the fact that the young girl had been admitted there by court order since March 28 for her suicide attempt to, a month later, on April 29, harass her. He did it around one in the morning. He gave him two cigarettes and one of his two cell phones; He offered to use cocaine with him and began touching her in all her private parts. And he forced her to have sex. He then gave her another dose of the medication, which she took that morning.
On May 1, the man entered her room and attacked again. On this occasion, he raped her twice. Previously he had given her two more cigarettes and a lighter and, after the attack, he again supplied her with cocaine. The victim suffers from borderline personality and eating disorders and had been receiving mental health care since the age of 13. At that time, there were ten hospitalizations, she was under drug treatment and was sometimes therapeutically immobilized and found herself in “a serious psychopathological situation”.
“I am a simple guard”
The defendant had worked at Ramón y Cajal as a temporary employee since June 16, 2007. The conviction of the Provincial Court, on June 12, 2024, concerned a continuous crime of sexual abuse (according to the law prior to that of yes it is yes, this which eliminated the criminal type and grouped it in sexual assault) to seven years in prison and eight years of separation and communication with the victim; and an additional six years and one day for another offense of promoting, favoring or facilitating toxic drugs.
His appeal, now settled, cited as its first reason that the contested decision did not specify that the victim was not capable of giving consent; However, the court believes that he did not give it at any time. Also referring to the fact that she had relationships with other men before. And as a last point, in his capacity as “a simple guard, he had no knowledge and was unaware of the medical situation” of the complainant.
The TSJM states that “there has been a clear attack on sexual freedom, simply because of the lack of consent, even without violence or intimidation”. He also concludes that “the appellant took advantage of the victim’s psychopathological state and it is thanks to this that he was able to carry out the sexual behavior” punished.
