Paedophile sentenced to 18 years in prison for abusing three minors, one of whom thought of taking her own life, wanted in Malaga province
The case was opened when one of the victims wrote in a WhatsApp chat she had with her classmates
A 60-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexually abusing three minors he lived with in Malaga province. One of the victims alerted school authorities after expressing suicidal thoughts in a WhatsApp group, triggering the investigation.
Despite the sentence being confirmed by the Andalusian High Court of Justice (TSJA) in May, the convicted man has failed to turn up to court to serve his sentence, prompting authorities to issue a search and arrest order. The convict, of Nigerian origin, has ignored all requests to appear in court and enter prison in order to serve his sentence. So far he has not been located.
The investigation into the case dates back to 2019, when one of the three victims posted the following question in a WhatsApp chat she shared with her classmates from a Malaga city school: "Who has ever thought of committing suicide?"
The message aroused concern among the school community and reached the teacher, who spoke to her. The girl told the teacher about the sexual abuse she was suffering at the hands of a man.
The touching had started much earlier, when she was only nine years old, and had always taken place in the flat that she and her mother shared with the man. He was the official tenant in the rental contract. He lived there with his partner, two children and step-daughter and he was also subletting rooms. According to the court, his step-daughter was his third victim.
The couple had rented one room to the mother of the minor who wrote the WhatsApp message. In the flat also lived another mother who, due to working in Lorca (Murcia), would often leave her daughter - the second victim - in the care of the suspect's partner.
The first court sentence, from May 2023, considers it proven that the man had, "on multiple occasions", touched the first victim, causing her vaginal lesions and asking her "not to tell anyone about it".
The court also found that, in the summer of 2016 or 2017, the defendant took the three girls to a room, ordered them to take off their clothes and touched them "successively", asking them not to reveal anything about what had happened.
The court concluded that, as established by case law, the testimony of two of the minors was sufficient evidence to overturn the presumption of innocence, as their testimonies were considered credible by the institute of legal medicine (IML) in Malaga.
During the hearing, the defendant, his partner and his step-daughter all stated that the accusations were false - an invention of the complainant and her mother because they had not paid rent for several months and had been asked to leave the house. According to the defence, this prompted them to seek "revenge".
Defence's version: revenge and non-payment of rent
The defendant added that the minor's mother "may have been interested in him". According to him, when his partner reproached her, the victim's mother stopped paying rent (520 euros).
The court did not believe this version and concluded that there is no objective evidence, but "mere contradictory verbal allegations" between the defendant, his partner and the step-daughter regarding the mother's alleged advances towards him.
The court sentenced the defendant to 18 years in prison, ten of them for the abuse of the first victim, four and a half years for the second and three and a half for his step-daughter, despite her denial.
To these sentences must be added a 20-year and 14-year restraining orders in relation to the first and the second victims. The ruling also establishes compensation for both of them - 30,000 and 5,000 euros, respectively.
The defence filed an appeal before the TSJA alleging contradictions and an error in the assessment of the evidence, which had led to a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence.
The TSJA rejected the appeal, stating that the procedure had not been initiated by the mother, but by her daughter. According to the High Court, the fact that the girl, then 12 years old, had posted such a message in a WhatsApp chat, is not consistent with seeking revenge. "On the contrary, it denotes the behaviour of a girl affected by unwanted experiences; in addition, she did not denounce directly to the police, for example," the court states.
The second victim never issued a complaint and she was summoned to court following the first girl's statement, which implies that she had no "motive (...) for joining the conspiracy" against the defendant.
