Spanish court sentences man to 15 years in prison for forcing 13-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit videos

The defendant was found guilty of "child grooming" and producing child pornography (five and a half years), as well as an offence against sexual freedom for forcing her to perform sexual acts in photographs and videos (nine years) and the corruption of a minor (nine months).

In addition to the prison sentence, the court has imposed a ban on holding any employment or engaging in any activities that bring him into contact with minors and another ban on having custody or guardianship of any minor.

The defendant also has to pay compensation of 25,000 euros for the psychological impact his "particularly degrading behaviour" had on the child.

At the time when the abuse started, July 2024, the defendant was 24 years old. He contacted the girl via a forum for adults on TuSecreto, a social network for anonymous confessions. Their communication later moved to Instagram.

"Fully aware of the minor's age, as she had told him" how old she was, he gained her complete trust and they began conversations of an explicitly sexual nature. In the course of these conversations, the defendant sent her an image of his genitals and asked her to take photos and record videos of herself engaging in sexual acts, requests to which she agreed.

They then agreed to set up a Telegram account. A month later, her family realised that something was wrong. Her mother was concerned because their daughter had ADHD and autism. The girl had struggled with bullying and her self-image, which placed her in a vulnerable position.

She eventually showed her parents everything and they reassured her by telling her that "it wasn't her fault". The family filed a complaint.

During the search of the defendant's home, the police found six Instagram accounts and four TuSecreto accounts on his mobile phones, along with conversations, videos and photographs of the minor. They also detected a "huge number" of separate conversations of a sexual nature, around 80 per cent of which involved minors.

The defendant said that he believed the girl to be of legal age, as he had met her on a forum to which minors should not have access.

The court, however, "examined" the content of the conversations and ruled that he was able to believe that the age the girl had mentioned was her actual age and not a fake identity to make herself appear younger.

"This is a person who states that she is a minor and who behaves at all times as a minor. On that basis, it is the adult who must verify the age of the person with whom they are speaking. The protection of a minor's sexual freedom cannot be circumvented by simply resorting to role-playing," the court stated.

The victim has been "undergoing psychological treatment" due to high baseline anxiety, difficulty falling asleep and a fear that the images might be shared.

During the trial, the girl explained that she had simply wanted to "make friends", but had come across "strange people" on social media. She "couldn't stop" once she had started complying with his requests, because she was feeling "loved and accepted".

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