Judicial authorities have sentenced a man to five years in prison for a sexual assault involving non-consensual penetration, committed in Maspalomas. The legal proceedings, initially handled by the courts of the southern judicial district of Tirajana, bring to a close a case marked by an unusual and disturbing beginning.
The established facts of the ruling place the origin of the conflict during the months of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, a period in which the defendant, a native of Las Palmas, began an online relationship through social media with a young woman residing on the island of Lanzarote. During those weeks of digital interaction, they maintained conversations in a space of privacy and mutual trust, where they exchanged several images, some of which showed the victim in her underwear, specifically a bra.
The young woman began to feel deeply concerned about how the accused might use the photographs and the impact their possible dissemination or preservation could have on her relationship. Driven by this concern, and after prior agreement with the man, she decided to travel to Gran Canaria to address the matter in person, arriving on the island on December 18, 2020.
The two met to discuss the reason for the trip, and he allegedly proceeded to delete the images that were causing the victim distress. They went out to dinner, and at the end of the evening, the woman accepted his invitation to spend the night at the accused's home, where he provided her with a guest room exclusively for her use.
In the early hours of the following morning, around 04:00 a.m., the defendant entered the room where his guest was resting. Taking advantage of her being sound asleep and completely unaware of her surroundings due to exhaustion from the journey, he got into her bed. Without her consent, he removed her pajama pants and thong, exploiting her defenseless state and relative unconsciousness to position himself on top of her and commit sexual assault, penetrating her vaginally.
Upon waking abruptly, the victim found herself in an unwanted situation, immediately demanding that he get off her. The defendant continued penetration until, of his own volition and before ejaculating, he decided to end the assault. The victim experienced a profound sense of bewilderment, distress, and emotional numbness. She remained at home longer than she would have liked, feeling completely overwhelmed by the events and far from her usual environment.
The accused accompanied her to a bus stop in the late afternoon, from where she left alone for Gran Canaria Airport to catch the first available flight back to Lanzarote. On her home island, she recounted the assault to her family and trusted friends, filing a formal complaint with the police within 24 hours of the incident.
The text messages reflect attempts to obstruct justice. When the young woman was alone and traveling, the aggressor himself tried to convince her via WhatsApp messages to downplay what had happened. Between 20:40 p.m. and 22:36 p.m. that same day, the accused's mother also contacted her via Facebook, insisting that she not report her son. The victim remained firm, replying that what her son had done was unforgivable.
The court found the crimes proven, taking into account the consistency of the accusations, the absence of contradictions, and the internal and external coherence of the victim's testimony, corroborated by text messages that demonstrate the young woman's denial and the bewilderment of those around the accused. The ruling imposes, in addition to the five-year prison sentence, a restraining order of 500 meters and a ban on communication by any means for eight years, eight years of subsequent supervised release, and the payment of €4.000 in compensation for moral damages. He was acquitted of a minor charge of theft of headphones, which the prosecution had brought against him.
