The entrance of the City of Justice of Castellón.Ángel Sánchez
A couple faces more than 45 years in prison -15 years and four months for the man and 30 years and four months for the woman- as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of sexual assault, injury, display of pornographic material, exhibitionism and bad behavior. habitual treatment towards his five minor children in Castellón.
The prosecution also requests the payment of compensation of 300,000 euros for the damages and consequences suffered.
The minors have been under the tutelage of the administration since 2009, when it was decreed, after several failed attempts at intervention by the social services in the Castellón delegation, their legal situation of abandonment.
They were then between two and 10 years old.
Today, three are already adults.
The five were admitted to a reception center in May 2010 "after appreciating in the minor indicators of risk derived from negligence in their care and attention", collects the indictment of the prosecution in reference to "inadequate food, clothing in poor condition”, or the “thinness, developmental delay and school absenteeism” presented by the children, or the “absolute lack of response and collaboration from the parents”.
The accused couple, on provisional release for this reason, should have sat on the bench this Monday, but the second section of the Provincial Court of Castellón has suspended -in principle until tomorrow Tuesday- the trial by not appearing the mother of the children, against which the judge has decreed a search warrant, arrest and placing at the disposal of the women's room to guarantee their attendance at the trial.
The session has been suspended as it could not be located.
The accused has appeared.
As reported from the Valencian Superior Court of Justice, it will be the judge who decides if the trial resumes in the coming days.
In any case, it would be held behind closed doors at the request of the parties.
According to the provisional conclusions of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the defendants had five children in common, from whose birth they did not face the slightest care for them, failing to comply in a "serious and repeated" manner with the duties inherent to parental authority.
The defendants had intermittent income in prison, longer in the case of the father.
The same brief indicates that during the periods of time that they lived with their parents until they passed into the custody of the administration in the juvenile center, the couple's five children "were not only victims of a situation of complete abandonment derived from the neglect at all levels of life” but said situation was aggravated by “repeated behavior of a humiliating nature” directed against minors, victims of psychological and physical abuse.
The little ones were attacked "cruelly" by the accused.
"The defendant, in a dominant and active way, subjected her children to this type of situation without opposition or defensive intervention by the other parent, absent due to her admission to prison."
The prosecution indicates that the minors were so afraid of their mother's aggression that they hid the objects with which she committed them (sticks, buckles, irons and even boiling kitchen containers) to avoid harm.
Also constant was emotional abuse: the minors habitually heard from the mother that she did not love them, that they were not her children and that she should have “aborted” them.
The two defendants, addicted to cocaine and heroin, consumed daily in the presence of their children.
Three of them were also in charge of providing this type of substance and syringes to their parents, arriving on occasion to try the drug, indicates the prosecution.
The children were used for the practice of begging and accompanied their parents in small thefts.
The couple had sex in the presence of the minors, "being frequent the viewing of films with pornographic content" with them.
One of the minors "began to develop inappropriate sexual behavior for his age, touching himself imitating adults, even with his own sisters."
Another of the minors, when he was between 6 and 7 years old, "was the object of sexual conduct, abuse and aggression of this nature" in the family home by a relative and one of the partners that the mother had during the stays in prison of the father.
The "serious and continuous" physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse suffered by three of the minors interfered with their mental health.
They require continued therapeutic care for their “serious relationship and behavior problems”, which include post-traumatic stress, depression or self-harming behaviors.