“The firefighter who filmed me naked in the locker room has only received four months in jail. It is humiliating"

The history of the Barcelona Fire Station in Sant Andreu changed forever on September 26, 2015. Until then, all the members of the municipal emergency team worked together because of the trust they had with each other. That day, it was broken forever. One of the park's firefighters discovered that a colleague had placed a hidden camera in the women's locker room. She had been recording the intimacy of the firefighters for three months getting out of the shower and changing next to the locker. That day the unit was broken and a legal process began that ended on June 26. The crime committed by the firefighter was punished with four months and 15 days in jail.

The condemned person will not enter prison because he has no criminal record, the three firefighters whose nudity he recorded for three months will not receive a penny and, worst of all, the firefighter - who always acknowledged the facts - will return to his job. Indignation has gripped the victims, a large part of the emergency department and the Barcelona town hall itself. There is still a possibility of recourse, but it seems that the return to the fire station of someone capable of stealing the privacy of their own companions is inevitable.

• The Supreme Court confirms a year in prison for a 'mosso' who recorded 17 companions in the locker room
• The Mossos arrest a man for placing cameras in women's bathrooms

In the fire station of Sant Andreu four firefighters worked in September 2015. Sofia, a fictitious name since the victims prefer anonymity, entered the women's locker room at 8:45 p.m., moved a stool and what looked like a memory stick fell to the ground. “I went to the dining room where they were the rest of the shift because I thought it was from a colleague. She said it wasn't hers. Then a firefighter saw it and said: 'This looks like a camera,' "recalls Sofía. The two firefighters inserted the memory stick into the USB port of the computer and there appeared images of three of the women in the locker room filmed between July and September. “It must be for shifts but a partner does not appear. In two images, the face of a colleague appeared placing the camera. She had been filming us for three months with total impunity. She would go into the locker room shortly before we arrived and when we left she would come back to turn off the camera, ”laments Sofía. Inside the dressing room, they detected small pieces of velcro where the accused was holding the camera to record from different frames.

A monumental scandal broke out in the fire station. The victims notified superiors and the firefighter was suspended from employment. The next day the defendant sent a WhatsApp to Sofía and the rest of the firefighters: “I'm the fucking pig son of a bitch from the camera. I'm sorry and I regret 100% how cowardly I have been for not saying that I was the culprit, I was afraid to say it, due to the comments I heard. I have thought all night about how to justify it and it is impossible because what I have done has no name. I would like to give you an explanation. Could we meet tomorrow to talk about it? Really, I feel really bad and I will assume that my head rolls after speaking and explaining. I've never done such a stupid thing, I swear I'll never do anything wrong again. Deep down I'm not a bad person even though I have been lately ”.

They did not speak to him. On September 30, 2015, they formalized the complaints. “At first we were very afraid that he had spread the videos over the internet. They are stages that as a victim you go through. He has always said that it was for personal consumption but the Mossos did not register his computer, "he explains. The firefighter was indicted for three crimes (one for each firefighter) of discovery and revelation of secrets. The Prosecutor's Office requested that she be sentenced to two years in prison for each of them, a total of six years, a fine of 14,400 euros, that she could not approach the three firefighters or her workplace for five years and compensate the victims with 3,000 euros each. The lawyers of the fire companies and the City Council, who also appeared in the case, also requested that he be disqualified, during the term of the sentence, so that he could not work as a firefighter.

“He always recognized the facts and from the first moment offered us 3,000 euros each to withdraw the complaint and forget about it. We did not want. It is not a question of money, it is of dignity. Our work is based on trust and no one can trust this person, ”says Sofía. On July 23, the head of the Criminal Court number 19 of Barcelona made the sentence public. The defendant was sentenced to four months and 15 days in prison and suspension from employment during this short period of time. As the fire companies did not want to accept the compensation that the defendant had left consigned in court, the 9,000 euros will be returned.

"It is outrageous. Now there is little journey. The lawyers will appeal but this sentence is far from being exemplary. In June, the Supreme Court confirmed a one-year prison sentence for a mosso who recorded 17 companions while they changed in the dressing room of the Badalona police station. She has not been disabled and will rejoin the body. It is a shame, in cases where there are national police officers, mossos or firefighters, all the condemned continue to work, while in identical cases in dental clinics or gas stations, the first thing the bosses do is throw the accused out on the street ”, denounces Sofía . “Do we really have to work with him again? It is a full-blown revictimization. The most important thing is that something like this does not happen again and the sentence, which in reality comes to say, is that anything goes. It is a shabby, outrageous and insulting sentence. It has been a new humiliation ”, she laments.

The City Council has announced that it will appeal against the sentence at the Barcelona Court considering it very benevolent with the convicted person. For the moment, the City Council warns that the firefighter will not return to the park where he worked. The three victims are outraged with justice and have launched a campaign on social networks under the name: "Firefighters for the dignity of women." In it they show their denunciation of the sentence: “No, we will not accept it. Not for us, not for our partners, not for any woman ”.