San Sebastián resident jailed for having sexual relations with 13-year-old girl in state custody

According to the ruling, he was aware of the girl's age and he exhibited controlling behaviour during the relationship, including insults, threats and messages intended to persuade her to return to him after she had ended the relationship.

The events date back to March 2024, when the two met via social media and began a romantic relationship. The girl, born in 2010, was in the care of the provincial authority of Guipúzkoa and was living in a care home.

At one point, the teenager ran away from the centre for approximately ten days. During that period, she lived at the defendant's home, in a room in a shared flat in San Sebastián, where the two shared a bed and had penetrative sex. The ruling emphasises that the young man knew she was 13 years old because she had told him so when they first met.

The relationship continued over the following weeks. In June, after the girl ran away again, she went to the defendant's home and the two had sexual intercourse once more. The court found him guilty of a continuing offence against sexual freedom, another offence of minor coercion, a continuing offence of minor defamation and an offence of minor threats.

The ruling also describes a controlling behaviour on the part of the young man, who would check the girl's mobile phone out of jealousy and ask her who she was with when she did not answer his calls.

Furthermore, the court ruling details how the defendant also tried to rekindle the relationship via messages on Instagram after the minor had returned to the care home. In these messages, he told her that he had spoken to her parents and that, should she run away again, they would give her permission to stay with him. He also repeatedly rang the care home to ask after her.

The situation even involved threats of death and physical assault. According to the ruling, the now-convicted man told her that he would "drag her by the hair" and even kill her if he found her. This led the teenager to end the relationship for good on 14 June 2024.

Psychological reports indicated that the minor exhibited symptoms consistent with the interaction of various factors, which might include the alleged incidents.

During the trial, the prosecution amended its initial plea and sought a six-year prison sentence for the continuing offence against sexual freedom, having identified a mitigating factor relating to the defendant's mental state. The reports state that he suffered from an unspecified personality disorder, borderline intellectual ability and alcohol abuse that moderately impaired his volitional capacities.

The defendant and his defence team finally accepted the charges, which the victim's team and the provincial authority as a private prosecutor also agreed with.

In addition to the six-year prison sentence, the ruling includes an eight-year ban on approaching the victim within 300 metres or communicating with her by any means, as well as eight years' probation after the prison sentence ends.

The man will also have to carry out various community service tasks. The ruling from 5 October also orders him to pay the victim 4,000 euros in compensation for the non-pecuniary damage suffered.

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