Ex-boyfriend tried for attacking underage girl with axe tells Malaga court he 'doesn't remember anything'

The young man accused of breaking into his teenage girlfriend's home on 28 March 2023, attacking her with an axe and forcing her to jump from the balcony to escape, told the court in Malaga that he didn't remember the event.

In the final hearing before the jury was sequestered to begin deliberations, the defendant answered only questions from his lawyer.

According to his testimony, months before the events he began seeing mental health specialists because he was "practically delirious" and feeling "unwell". However, he admitted that he had not been taking the antipsychotics and antidepressants that had been prescribed to him.

He claimed to have no recollection of how he had entered the house or what had happened inside that day. "It wasn't until I got to prison that I began to realise what had happened," he stated.

The trial has now entered its final stage and the parties have submitted their preliminary conclusions. The public prosecutor made the only substantial change, requesting an increase in the amount the defendant must pay the victim in compensation, setting the amount at 165,000 euros.

The prosecutor justified this increase by citing the serious psychological trauma the victim suffers to this day, for which she is receiving treatment from a private psychiatrist.

During the presentation of the closing argument, the prosecutor detailed the brutality of the attack, which, in her opinion, demonstrates the defendant's clear intention to end his ex-partner's life.

"In his delusion, he wanted to kill her. He did everything he could," she stated. However, she said that the young man "could not control his impulses" due to his mental illness, based on the reports of the forensic experts.

Although the public prosecutor believes the defendant should be granted full exemption from criminal responsibility due to mental incapacity, she has warned that he is "very dangerous" and that doctors confirm he could suffer another episode if he stops taking his medication, as he has done in the past.

For this reason, she has requested a psychiatric confinement order for a period equivalent to the prison sentence he would have received for the crimes of attempted murder, burglary and breach of a restraining order.

The private prosecution disagrees on this point. The lawyer based her argument on the assessment of the on-call psychiatrist who examined the detainee immediately after the events. That report said that the defendant had not suffered a psychotic episode at that time.

In this final phase of the trial, the defendant's lawyer attempted to cast doubt on the origin of the most serious injuries. The defence argued that the injuries to the girl's skull could have been caused by the force of the fall from the balcony and not by the axe blows she had received inside the house.

The jury is scheduled to deliver their verdict this Friday, 3 July.

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