Efe Alicante

Alicante

Updated Monday, March 11, 2024-14:52

  • Events Five men are arrested for gang raping a woman in Benidorm

Five French tourists

accused of committing a group rape in an apartment in Benidorm (Alicante) in 2019 on a woman and attempting to rape another, both British, have assumed responsibility for the events on Monday and have been sentenced to sentences ranging from from six months to four years in prison.

In the trial held this Monday in the Third Section of the Alicante Provincial Court, an agreement was reached in accordance with the prosecution and the private prosecution representing the victims, who testified by videoconference from the United Kingdom.

At the hearing, the two women have ratified the previous statements they made during the investigation of the case and the five defendants, with the help of a sworn interpreter, have acknowledged the sexual assault when asked by the presiding magistrate of the court, so that he has handed down a guilty verdict on the spot.

The mitigating circumstances of recognition of the facts, reparation of the damage and undue delays

have been applied

to all of the defendants, as reported by the prosecutor's office.

The ruling imposes four years on one of the defendants, two for a crime of sexual assault with penetration and another two as co-author of a second crime of sexual assault on the second woman;

Two other individuals were sentenced to two years each for the rape, and the other two were sentenced to six months each.

The sexual assault occurred on

August 6, 2019 in an apartment in Benidorm,

where the defendants spent their holidays, where the two victims went and where they consumed alcohol, especially one of them.

Next, one of the defendants went with her to a room in the house and sexually assaulted her, taking advantage of her reduced abilities and vulnerability, while two other defendants took the other victim to another room and subjected her to groping, in addition to trying to take off her clothes, which she flatly refused.

At that moment, the latter looked for her friend in the other room, where she was with the other three defendants who, according to the prosecution, had sexually assaulted her.

The five defendants were

arrested shortly after and imprisoned until they were released after paying the bail

agreed by the court, in a case in which the prosecutor's office initially requested sentences ranging from 14 to two years. and a half of prison.

In the sentence, the magistrate decrees, in addition to the custodial sentence, supervised freedom for 5 years and 3 years of confinement with respect to the two victims for the first three defendants, and one year of supervised freedom and two years of confinement for the two other defendants.

Regarding civil liability, the first three convicted must compensate the victim of the rape jointly and severally in the amount of 31,840 euros, while the two remaining defendants must compensate the second woman with another 3,000 euros each. one of them.

The defense lawyer has requested the

suspension of the prison sentence

for all five defendants, arguing that they were "primary criminals" and neither the prosecution nor the private prosecution have opposed that request.

However, the president of the court has postponed the resolution regarding that request until confirming that the payment of the established compensation occurs.