A 46-year-old man has been sentenced by the Alicante Provincial Court to 22 years in prison for continuously sexually assaulting his two underage stepdaughters.
According to the ruling, the sexual assaults began when the two victims were 11 and 9 years old and continued for nearly a decade. Specifically, the events began in 2011 when the minors arrived in Spain to live in Altea, within the Alicante province, alongside their mother and the accused, whom she had married.
The judicial resolution indicates that the conduct of the accused began by making comments of a sexual nature to the girls. The assaults commenced in 2011 when the eldest victim turned 11 years old. The accused also sexually assaulted her sister practically from the beginning of their cohabitation, when she was 9 years old.
The accused exercised his right not to testify during the trial, which took place on 12th May, and his lawyer requested his full acquittal, as the position defended from the start of the proceedings was a complete denial of the sexual assaults.
However, the Court considers that the testimony offered by the two victims is sufficient to consider the judged facts as proven, especially since their credibility was reinforced by the conclusions of the forensic psychological reports regarding their condition.
Consequently, the court imposes 11 years in prison for each of the two crimes of continuous sexual assault committed against the two minors, totalling 22 years. The ruling specifies that the maximum time to be served will be 20 years.
The judicial resolution also establishes a restraining order with a minimum distance of 500 metres from the two minors for 16 years, as well as supervised release for another 10 years.
In addition, the Court has ruled that the accused must compensate the first victim with the sum of 80,000 euro and the second with 100,000 euro to compensate for the injuries and moral damages caused. The sentence can be appealed before the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community within a period of ten days from its notification.
