Help sought for repeat offender who 'terrorises' Mijas neighbourhood
Local residents and the man's close circle of friends are desperate for the authorities to find a solution for his mental health issues, which manifest themselves in aggressive behaviour
Locals claim an ex-convict has been "terrorising" residents in Mijas for a year, ever since his release from prison after serving an 18-year sentence for tying up and holding a woman against her will. Juanjo, who suffers from a bipolar disorded and schizophrenia, as well as his family and neighbours have all been failed by the justice system that doesn't pay proper attention to the man's case. He allegedly regularly damages the neighbourhood's facilities and threatens local residents, after which he is detained and released back to the street.
His neighbours have been living in fear. They are desperate in the face of a system that admits Juanjo to a psychiatric institution for a few days, only to release him without treatment.
Juanjo was released from prison in October 2024. His "anti-social" predisposition and lack of adaptation to prison life led him to serve his sentence in the first degree - the hardest in prison.
When he left prison, he returned to Mijas and moved into an old workshop, which was owned by his late father, Juanjo and one of his siblings. According to the locals, rubbish started to accumulate around the premises, attracting dirt and rats. However, their biggest concern was the loud music of various genres that Juanjo used to play at full volume and until well into the early hours of the morning.
The warehouse is in Las Lagunas de Mijas, opposite two 10-storey blocks where some 60 families live. Ironically, the complex is called Edificio Vacaciones (Vacation Buildings). Residents started frequently calling the police. "Sometimes, they would have stones thrown at them upon arriving," a young local said. "He comes back even angrier when they release him."
Tension has been growing. "About three months ago, we got him to stop playing the music, but he started threatening and banging all over the place. He has destroyed the whole complex," another local said. She asked to remain anonymous. "I go out in the street in fear. I can't help but get startled when I hear anything behind my back. My daughter has come home to sleep with me so that I won't be alone and I still have to take a valerian at night to sleep."
The list of damage attributed to Juanjo is endless. "He has broken the intercom, the lift doors, the locks and even the main door of the block with a sledgehammer. He has also smashed flowerpots, splashed pains all over walls and once he even threw tomatoes. We're desperate, we don't know what to do anymore. We've stopped repairing things, because he's going to break them again," the woman said.
This past 26 August, she caught him smashing the building's automatic doors, six months after they had been fixed. When she started talking to him, he approached her with an iron bar and told her he was going to kill her. "Earlier that same day, he had threatened a neighbour of mine with a knife," she said. The woman, after confronting him, took out her phone and started recording the scene, as she was afraid of what he could do to her. Juanjo pulled out his penis. Other residents started filming him from their balconies and shouting: "Don't touch her!".
According to the residents of the complex, there have been other incidents they attribute to him, but they don't have any proof. One such example is a fire that broke out in a nearby warehouse, where one of the residents keeps his lorries. The locals have stopped parking their cars in a nearby vacant lot, because they sometimes find them with the windows smashed. "All street lamps are also broken, so we are completely in the dark at night. It's like a house of terrors," one resident said, adding that the complex used to be quiet and peaceful before Juanjo returned.
The locals do not blame the Guardia Civil, as they "do their job" by detaining Juanjo and taking him to the police station. It is after the court that he goes back to the street. Juanjo's family also feel desperate. They are disappointed in the lack of support from the system that has been unable to provide them with a solution for years. "He is mentally ill. He suffers from a bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and has become increasingly antisocial," they said. Juanjo's siblings have tried everything since their parents died. Judges, lawyers, doctors - they have asked everybody for help, believing that the only long-term solution would be for Juanjo to be hospitalised and properly treated.
