Spain's 'Wolf Pack' found guilty of rape in landmark ruling

[rooster59]

Spain's 'Wolf Pack' found guilty of rape in landmark ruling

By Sabela Ojea and Ingrid Melander

 

Angel Boza, a member of the group known as La Manada ("The Wolf Pack"), exits a courthouse in Seville, Spain, June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo

 

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Supreme Court on Friday ruled that five men who attacked a teenager at a bull-running festival were guilty of rape not the lesser crime of sexual abuse, concluding a case that sparked mass protests across Spain over chauvinism and sexual abuse.

 

The Supreme Court's ruling, hailed by women's' rights groups and by the government, accepted that the victim's ordeal met the requirement in Spanish law that the plaintiff in a rape case must present evidence of intimidation or specific violence.

 

Lawyers for the woman, who was 18 when she was gang-raped in a doorway early in the morning at the 2016 San Fermin festival by the five men who called themselves the "Wolf Pack", argued that shock and fear had stopped her from fighting them.

 

The men had originally been convicted by a lower court of sexual abuse. Outrage at that verdict helped put the treatment of women at the heart of the public debate in Spain, including during campaigning for April's election, and prompted a government promise to change the law.

 

The case attracted international attention in the wake of the global #MeToo movement that has highlighted sexual abuse and mistreatment of women.

 

The men, who include a former policeman and a former soldier, had shared videos of the incident in a WhatsApp group and joked about it shortly afterwards.

 

The teenager was found crying on a bench by a couple who rang the police when she said she had been attacked.

 

The Supreme Court said the attack should be considered as rape "because the factual account describes a scenario of true intimidation, in which the victim did not at any moment consent to the sexual acts carried out by the accused".

 

It increased the mens' sentence to 15 years in jail rather than the nine years they had been given for sexual abuse by the regional court. The lower court had said the men could not be convicted of rape without proof they had used physical violence.

 

One of the men was sentenced to an additional two years in jail for stealing the victim's phone. They collectively need to give 100,000 euros (88,992.85 pounds) as compensation to the victim.

 

All five were immediately detained by police to be sent to jail to start their sentence.

 

Marisa Soleto, head of the Women's Foundation pro-equality group, welcomed Friday's ruling but said the law should not require proof of violence or of the victim fighting back.

 

"We won't have to be ashamed about this ruling as we were with the previous one," she told Reuters. "However, we still demand that the legislation for crimes against sexual freedom be reviewed."

 

"I BELIEVE YOU SISTER"

 

The government said it would press ahead with plans to change the law, after a divisive election campaign in which women's rights and gender violence were at the heart of debate.

 

"Only yes is yes," acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Twitter. "Spain continues to advance in the protection of women's rights and freedoms, and it will not stop. Because we believed her (the victim), because we believe you."

 

Spain's new parliament has the largest share of women in any European legislature although the election saw the anti-feminist Vox party enter the assembly for the first time.

 

The defendants' lawyers had argued the woman consented to sex. "The victim could have said 'No'," lawyer Agustin Martinez told the court.

 

But Spain's public prosecutor Isabel Rodriguez agreed that violence and intimidation was used, saying: "You can't ask victims to act in a dangerously heroic way."

 

Protests were organised last year throughout Spain after the regional court's verdict. Thousands brandished banners that read "I believe you sister" and chanted "It's not abuse, it's rape".

 

The men's release from jail during the appeal process on a legal technicality that no one can be held for more than two years without a definitive sentence further fuelled protests calling for tougher punishment of sex crimes.

 

The attack occurred during the annual bull-running festival in Pamplona, which draws thousands of tourists and is famed for its drunken revelry. But concern has grown over increased reports of sex attacks and harassment at the event, as well as over the mistreatment of women in general in Spain.

 

(Additional reporting by Isla Binnie, Paul Day, Elena Rodriguez; Editing by Catherine Evans)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-22

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[KKr]

that surely will make these and other male chauvinistic pi.. think about what they are doing, and start behaving like human beans.
 

[Odysseus123]

11 minutes ago, KKr said:

that surely will make these and other male chauvinistic pi.. think about what they are doing, and start behaving like human beans.
 

I agree.

 

They also give canus lupus a very bad name.

[owl sees all]

Quite a backward lot these Spanish men. Just horrible people. 

 

Chuck them out of the EU. Stop buying their cars and olives and garden fencing. Make them suffer, Show Spain that we will not tolerate this. 

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Quite a backward lot these Spanish men. Just horrible people. 

 

Chuck them out of the EU. Stop buying their cars and olives and garden fencing. Make them suffer, Show Spain that we will not tolerate this. 

Those blokes are bad guys. And so are bigots who use them as an excuse to tar the men of an entire nation.

[Krataiboy]

1 hour ago, KKr said:

that surely will make these and other male chauvinistic pi.. think about what they are doing, and start behaving like human beans.
 

All inhuman beans should be thrown in the can.

[Bluespunk]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

It increased the mens' sentence to 15 years in jail

Excellent news. 

[Tarteso]

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

Those blokes are bad guys. And so are bigots who use them as an excuse to tar the men of an entire nation.

Brilliant! 

[from the home of CC]

4 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Those blokes are bad guys. And so are bigots who use them as an excuse to tar the men of an entire nation.

done daily on this site...

[tonbridgebrit]

Okay, I'm not a Muslim, but let's look at Islam.

With Islam, one of the basic principles of Islam is, is that the part of the body that carried out the crime gets chopped off. So, shoplifting, chop the hand off. It was the hand that did the crime, therefore, the hand gets chopped off.

Now, we're talking rape here. Rape, it was the penis that carried out the offence. Hence, the penis gets chopped off. As in, castration.

Let's be honest here. How many people reckon that, that these blokes should have their dicks chopped off ? Come on, admit it, you'd love to see these blokes getting their dicks chopped off. I mean, if their dicks do actually get chopped off, well, they're not going to be doing the same crime again. ????

 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, tonbridgebrit said:

With Islam, one of the basic principles of Islam is, is that the part of the body that carried out the crime gets chopped off. So, shoplifting, chop the hand off. It was the hand that did the crime, therefore, the hand gets chopped off.
Now, we're talking rape here. Rape, it was the penis that carried out the offence. Hence, the penis gets chopped off. As in, castration.

Off topic, but you're wrong.

Muslims guard their women, so there is no rape.

I would also point out there is also no 'right of consent', you're either married and can have sex with your spouse or are single and must abstain. Women allowed to wander around unprotected with the right to say 'yes' or 'no' to sex is a western concept completely absent from Islam. The woman attacked by the 'wolf pack' would not have been out alone in a Muslim society, so no crime could have been committed.

[tifino]

Spanish Arab 'immigrants'

 

 

... heavens to merkeltroid...

no different to Hamburg in 2015...Sweden.. etc etc.

[tifino]

6 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Off topic, but you're wrong.

Muslims guard their women, so there is no rape.

I would also point out there is also no 'right of consent', you're either married and can have sex with your spouse or are single and must abstain. Women allowed to wander around unprotected with the right to say 'yes' or 'no' to sex is a western concept completely absent from Islam. The woman attacked by the 'wolf pack' would not have been out alone in a Muslim society, so no crime could have been committed.

even though the poor girl was not out, in a muslim society...

[monkeycu]

2 hours ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Okay, I'm not a Muslim, but let's look at Islam.

With Islam, one of the basic principles of Islam is, is that the part of the body that carried out the crime gets chopped off. So, shoplifting, chop the hand off. It was the hand that did the crime, therefore, the hand gets chopped off.

Now, we're talking rape here. Rape, it was the penis that carried out the offence. Hence, the penis gets chopped off. As in, castration.

Let's be honest here. How many people reckon that, that these blokes should have their dicks chopped off ? Come on, admit it, you'd love to see these blokes getting their dicks chopped off. I mean, if their dicks do actually get chopped off, well, they're not going to be doing the same crime again. ????

 

In the past it was the women in the village who did the organ removal, from what I have read it was a short life after for the offender

[ratcatcher]

1 hour ago, tifino said:

Spanish Arab 'immigrants'

... heavens to merkeltroid...

no different to Hamburg in 2015...Sweden.. etc etc.

Alfonso Jesus Cabezuelo, Jose Angel Prenda, Jesus Escudero, Angel Bousa, Antonio Manuel Borero? 

2 Angels and a 2 Jesuses, definitely Muslims.????????

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed. 

 

[bristolboy]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Off topic, but you're wrong.

Muslims guard their women, so there is no rape.

I would also point out there is also no 'right of consent', you're either married and can have sex with your spouse or are single and must abstain. Women allowed to wander around unprotected with the right to say 'yes' or 'no' to sex is a western concept completely absent from Islam. The woman attacked by the 'wolf pack' would not have been out alone in a Muslim society, so no crime could have been committed.

Really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Saudi_Arabia

And of course, Saudi Arabia is one of the most misogynistic Muslim nations. Your ideas about the life in women from Muslim nations is just a cliché 

[Tarteso]

I Understand that a lot of uncultured people don’t know where is Spain, Can someone explain why talk about muslims in this trheat?

They are F***k Spanish men who are guilty of rape and the law just make his work.!

Poor lady!!!!!!

[Scott]

Please stay on topic.   The topic doesn't appear to have anything much to do with Islamic countries.  

 

[wisperone]

9 hours ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Okay, I'm not a Muslim, but let's look at Islam.

With Islam, one of the basic principles of Islam is, is that the part of the body that carried out the crime gets chopped off. So, shoplifting, chop the hand off. It was the hand that did the crime, therefore, the hand gets chopped off.

Now, we're talking rape here. Rape, it was the penis that carried out the offence. Hence, the penis gets chopped off. As in, castration.

Let's be honest here. How many people reckon that, that these blokes should have their dicks chopped off ? Come on, admit it, you'd love to see these blokes getting their dicks chopped off. I mean, if their dicks do actually get chopped off, well, they're not going to be doing the same crime again. ????

 

The woman may be re-victimized. Her family would shun her, and maybe worse for being involved in a rape. She would be considered damaged goods. Not acceptable for marriage. No dowry.