• Trial The head of the investigation of the crime of the boy of Lardero: "His death was extremely violent"
  • Events X-ray of Lardero's monster: extreme violence, sadism and... Why was he on the loose?

Just three meters away separate the parents of Álex, the 9-year-old boy suffocated and sexually assaulted in Lardero (La Rioja) in October 2021, from his alleged murderer, Francisco Javier Almeida, a repeat criminal, whose impassibility clashes each session of the trial with the integrity of the child's family.

The Provincial Court of Logroño has hosted, during this week, the first five sessions of the trial with popular court against Almeida, accused of the crimes of murder and sexual assault of Álex, for which the prosecutor, the private accusation, by his parents, and the popular, by the association Clara Campoamor, ask for the sentences of permanent prison reviewable and 15 years in prison.

The mother of the child has only missed one session and part of another, while his father came to appear in a day, in which he transmitted the heartbreaking testimony that, since the death of Alex, all are "dead in life", a circumstance that has been confirmed by psychologists who have declared as experts.

To the hardness of losing such a young son in tremendous circumstances is added the media coverage that the trial has had, with 85 accredited journalists from 40 media -23 of them nationwide-, which is the largest coverage deployed from the Superior Court of Justice of La Rioja.

The presence of the jury in the room forces the parties to delve into technical details of the autopsy or show photographs of the body, which increases, if possible, the pain of the family and the indignation for events that "could have been avoided," according to the child's great-uncle, Gonzalo Martín. as Almeida had been on parole since April 2020.

"ALEX WILL NOT BE ALONE"

Martín has been the family's spokesman since, three days after the crime, a large concentration of condemnation was convened in the Entre Ríos de Lardero park, where Alex was playing disguised for the Halloween party when, according to witnesses, Almeida took him "holding his chest" to his house, located about 100 meters away.

Alex's great-uncle, who has not missed any session and will not do so until the trial ends, predictably this Tuesday, March 27, needed to "see the face" of Almeida, but looks away from the screen or closes his eyes when the images of the child reflect the brutality with which he was killed.

"I'm going to be there, I'm going to have a bad time, yes, I'm already bad, but I'm going to be there," he told reporters these days, because, "wherever Alex is, I'm not going to leave him alone. I haven't left him from minute zero and I'm going to be there until the end."

The family maintains the "fight" for justice for this crime and wants the murder of Alex to be the last to occur by a repeat offender who is on parole, as has happened in this case, said Martin.

REPEAT OFFENDER

Almeida, who turns 56 in April, has spent half his life in prison. In 1993 he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for a sexual assault on a girl. In 1998, he murdered a real estate agent whom he had previously sexually assaulted, for which he was also tried by a people's court and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment.

In April 2020, he was released from prison on parole and settled in Lardero, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Logroño, in a rental apartment located a few meters from a school and a playground.

Weeks before Alex's crime, according to the trial, he dedicated himself to following the girls around the neighborhood, observing the children from his window or sitting on a park bench and even invited a minor to go up to his house to clean the cage of his birds.

The mother of one of these girls wanted to file a complaint, but the Local Police of Lardero ruled it out because "nothing had happened, nor did she have against whom".

Last January, in a legal carom, the application of the law of only yes is yes allowed the reduction of the sentence for the sexual assault committed in 10 from 8 to 1998 years, but nothing changed in his procedural situation because he was in provisional detention since October 31, 2021, first in the prison of Logroño and, since November 4 of that year, in Segovia.

"EVIL EXISTS"

So far, no psychiatrist has been able to prove in the trial that Almeida suffers from any mental pathology. According to the prosecutor in his preliminary report, "evil exists in the world: Almeida is not sick, he does what he wants, he can avoid it and he does not avoid it."

The lawyer of the private and popular prosecution, Alicia Redondo, warned the members of the jury that they would go through "hard and very unpleasant" days, after which they would have "no doubt" that Almeida is the author of this "bloodthirsty" death.

The lawyer of the duty shift who defends him and for whom he asks for acquittal reminded the jury that, like them, he participates in the procedure "by chance, without spurious, economic or professional interests", and, so far, justifies the acts of the accused in a drunkenness that neither witnesses nor forensic experts have confirmed.

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