Statements during the second session of the trial for a multiple sexual assault in Sabadell.EUROPA PRESS / Europa Press
A. intuited what he was facing when he entered the courtroom of the Audiencia de Barcelona to testify as a victim of a group sexual assault.
Her lawyer had prepared her for an intense interrogation, which would make her relive the horror of February 3, 2019, when she was raped three times, consecutively, in an old warehouse in Sabadell.
The prosecutor had also met with her shortly before.
But that mentalization did not prevent that, when the moment came, A.'s voice, who declared protected by a screen, from breaking.
The images of the trial, which was public, showed how that same prosecutor, who asks for high prison sentences - from 37 to 41 years - and knows the matter because he drove it from the beginning, carried out a harsh interrogation, with little empathy and interruptions: "Are you sure about that?", "Did you try to escape from the room?", "Do you remember the lighting in the room?"
His colleagues, who support him after the criticism received, say that he only intended to shield the accusation, that he is not used to large trials.
Video with part of the interrogation of the victim of the group aggression in Sabadell.
Specialists in sexual violence do not doubt the good faith of the prosecutor, but believe that his lackluster performance shows the difficulties of the criminal process to bring out the truth and protect, at the same time, victims of sexual crimes.
They often bear an excessive burden and experience as a second violence a system that reminds them over and over again of the horror they experienced.
The statement of a rape victim like A. is usually the main evidence in the trial, the "Roman column" of the accusation, says Laia Serra, a lawyer specializing in sexual violence and investigator.
And that is the source of the problem.
The criminal process turns on the woman's back, which can lead to a secondary victimization process.
“He is asked for so much information and so detailed that he receives unnecessary pressure.
There are data, such as the meters of the premises or if the aggressor ejaculated, which could be known with other tests, ”says Serra.
The remedy: that the previous investigations are more solid, look for ways to avoid that the women have to repeat the story over and over again and, when the trial comes, that their statement should not be exhausting.
"Our criminal process is built on the basis of ensuring guarantees for the accused, but it has not thought so much about guaranteeing the rights of the victims," explains Altamira Gonzalo, a lawyer specializing in sexist violence and vice president of the Themis Women's Legal Association.
For the victim to explain the circumstances of the attack, no matter how harsh, is part of the rules of the procedural game: the trial is governed by the principle of contradiction, and the witness must answer the accusations, but also the defenses.
But the expectations for the memories it can bring are too high.
This is corroborated by the scientific literature.
Testimony Psychology
, by Margarita Diges and José Joaquín Mira, points out that traumatic experiences, such as rape, generate a fragmented memory.
"The victim cannot remember the way the prosecutor wants," says Serra.
One of the defendants this Wednesday upon their arrival at the Barcelona Court.Marta Pérez / EFE
Ignorance about the mental processes experienced by victims is general in legal operators, also says Alba Alfageme, a psychologist specializing in sexual violence and professor at the University of Barcelona.
“They think that contradictions, forgetfulness or spontaneous memories detract from credibility.
We know that is not so".
Both Alfageme and Lucía Avilés, magistrate and founder of the Association of Women Judges, defend that "we must not let all the weight fall on women."
They invite judges and prosecutors to "make their approaches more flexible" —especially, their way of conducting questions— and demand more training in interrogation techniques.
Elena (figurative name) remembers her desire to flee from the trial of her rapist - "all she wanted was to get out of there" - which took place in 2013. From the time she filed the complaint until she testified at the trial, she had to relate what lived almost a dozen times.
"As you explain it, memories come to you: the knife in the neck ... my daughter in the next room ...".
Before the trial, he was hurt by the comments of the Mossos d'Esquadra (their attack took place in Catalonia) about whether in his country, which he asks not to reveal, "uncles sleep with nephews."
And after the sentence, of 13 and a half years in jail, it hurts him that he is on the street and that no one will notify her even though he has a protection order.
In short, he points out that the institutions have been failing him throughout the entire process.
Only 8% of women who were sexually assaulted outside the scope of their partner reported the assailant, according to the
2019 Macro-survey on Violence against Women
.
Organizations such as the Federation of Associations for Assistance to Victims of Sexual and Gender Violence, FAMUVI, warn that these percentages will not improve until the processes faced by the complainants do.
"As long as you do not solve this problem and stop focusing on them, women will not dare to do so," says Mariti Pereda, its president.
2.8 million women have suffered physical or sexual violence
What can be done to make the victim feel a little more comfortable at trial?
To begin with, the sources consulted coincide, it is necessary to explain in advance the reason for the questions so that they can face them with more resources.
An error that stands out in the case of Sabadell is that the victim was asked if he was "sure" of his manifestations, since this way he deconcentrates himself, he loses the thread.
It is not necessary to question, they say, but to give the opportunity to explain itself.
Doing pedagogy and giving the victims time to respond are measures, Avilés recalls, that could already be put into operation without the need to change any law, but "in general they are not applied.
"The conduct of the victims ends up being judged and not the facts, and that results in revictimization", Alfageme ditch.
And this despite the fact that, as explained by A.'s lawyer, Jorge Albertini, for her the interrogation was more like "a catharsis" and "a therapy."
Albertini admits that there were "painful questions", but applauds the prosecutor's intervention.
Tools
The official has received the support of his colleagues.
The president of the conservative Association of Prosecutors, Cristina Dexeus, assures that in rape cases "sometimes the only evidence for the prosecution is the statement", and that is why the prosecutor is punctilious, although he is always moved by "the protection of the weakest ”.
There is also, he says, a human factor: the mood of each prosecutor.
But for the experts that should be secondary: "It is not a matter of empathy or tone, but of having professional tools to direct an interrogation: decipher their visual language, do not cut it, let it be explained," says Serra.
Altamira Gonzalo also sees a need for a generational change: “From a few ages, we are educated in a mentality of absolute inequality.
And this way of thinking translates into lawsuits and sentences ”.
The uncut testimony of Rocío Carrasco
In the same week, two very different testimonies were on the screens.
In addition to the Sabadell trial, millions of people have been able to see in their homes the chapters of a documentary in which Rocío Carrasco, famous from the cradle, has denounced the psychological violence that, according to her testimony, her ex-husband exerted on her, on him that does not weigh any condemnation of this matter.
Beyond the differences between a set and a court, Judge Lucía Avilés asks to look at the format of Carrasco's statement: “He is given a space so that he can freely tell his truth, no one cuts it.
There are very specific questions, without interference ”.
The Gesell rooms, already installed in some courts mainly for the testimony of minors, function in a similar way.
The witness speaks with a psychologist in a room from where he cannot see anyone but can be seen by all the legal actors: judge, prosecutor, court clerk, lawyers.
The psychologist asks the questions, few, and the continued story takes precedence.
You can even pass the questions of the parties.
The draft of the future law on sexual freedom, whose processing began more than a year ago, provides for judicial measures of protection and "reinforced" accompaniment for the victims, such as "testifying in specially equipped rooms" or facilitating the recording of their testimony, in order to that "be reproduced during the oral trial."
Avilés defends that these rooms or others to testify by teleconference - a procedure whose use has driven the covid pandemic - can avoid secondary victimization.
The lawyer Laia Serra does not share it: “The woman's story must have the maximum immediacy with the court.
Only with a mask it is lost.
It is the last chance to access the truth ”.