The Superior Court of Justice in Andalusia has upheld, in all its terms, the punishment issued in July 2024 by the second section of the Court of Cordoba, which sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for sexual assault, continuously, between 2016 and 2019, on the niece of his granddaughter, when she was between 13 and 16 years old.
According to the decision of the Superior Court of Justice in Andalusia, accessed by Europe Press, the appeal against the decision of the trial presented by the convicted lawyer has been rejected, alleging that it violated «his fundamental right to the presumption of innocence» and invoked the principle of «in dubio pro reo.»
The court affirmed that the victim’s «testimony» is «not credible or plausible» and «not corroborated by any evidence other than what confirms it,» because «there has been consent between the sexual relations» and there is no condemned violence or physical superiority.
However, the proven facts of the sentence state that the accused, «under the guise of playing with the child and taking advantage of his influence over her,» frequently and for three years, touched the breasts and genital area, inserting his fingers into the girl’s vagina, in which, in October 2019, in October 2019, in October 2019.
Furthermore, the Court of Cordoba, in its sentence, now supported in all its terms by the Superior Court of Justice in Andalusia, considers the victim’s story «plausible and convincing» from her initial complaint and repeated in the oral trial, with the advantage that it immediately perceives the direction and perception of the records, especially personal ones, and now sees the basis of the conclusion.
It is added that, along with the child’s testimony, there is «the expert report issued by professionals from the National Institute of Toxicology,» as «traces of sperm» were found in the child’s vagina and underwear after the sexual assault suffered in October 2019.
For all these reasons, the court has convicted him, now ratified by the Superior Court of Justice in Andalusia, «as responsible, as an author, of a continuous crime of sexual assault,» with «the concurrence of mitigating the unjustified delay,» to the penalties of «12 years of imprisonment, with the accessory of absolute disqualification for 15 years.
It also includes «the prohibition of approaching the victim or her home and communicating with her, under the conditions agreed in the Protection Order, for 15 years, with the imposition of the seven years of protected freedom after serving the private punishment; paying the costs, including those of the private prosecution» and compensating the victim.
FUENTE