"We have achieved a very important step, that both are guilty, that both are going to receive life sentences. Because that is what we came to seek,
justice. Let them be separated
. "
With these words,
Lucio Dupuy's grandfather, Ramón
, described the moment he experienced when he heard the verdict against the murderers of his grandson.
The conviction of the baby's mother, Magdalena Espósito Valenti (25), and his girlfriend, Abigail Páez (28), was what the Dupuy family and the prosecutors in the case, Verónica Ferrero, Walter Martos and Marcos Saccopidio, requested.
Both Páez and Espósito Valenti were found guilty of
aggravated homicide,
while only Lucio's mother's girlfriend was also convicted of
seriously insulting sexual abuse.
This differentiation produced indignation in the grandfather.
"The sex toys appear in the autopsy and have the DNA of Lucito and the two murderers.
The other rapist (by Espósito Valenti) cannot be excluded,"
he said.
And he sentenced: "Removing the abuse for me is a mistake. It is impossible that living with the other murderer (Páez) did not see what she did to him."
The relatives of Lucio Dupuy embrace once the verdict that sentenced the minor's mother and his girlfriend was known.
Photo: Marcelo Carroll
But not only Ramón questioned the decision.
So did the dozens of people who were waiting for the Dupuy family at the exit of the Santa Rosa Judicial Center, in La Pampa.
At 12:30, half an hour after the verdict was read,
a chorus against the magistrates began.
"Dismissal of all the judges who believe that biting Lucio's genitals is not abuse. Sons of bitches, sons of bitches," those who accompanied Ramón shouted in unison.
The message was directed against four magistrates.
On the one hand, the song was for the three judges of the Court of Hearing, Daniel Saez Zamora, Andrés Olié and Alejandra Ongaro, who handed down the verdict.
And on the other, she pointed to her colleague Ana Clara Pérez Ballester because
she gave possession of Lucio to Esposito.
In addition, the boy's grandfather acknowledged that he longed for more from the verdict of the judges.
"We came with the hope that they would accept the aggravating circumstance of gender hatred and they did not speak. But
they kill him for gender hatred,"
he acknowledged.
For him, the judges should have taken this aspect into account in the sentence.
And he exemplified what his grandson suffered: "Lucito was raped, they dressed him as a woman, they painted his lips. We wanted both to be measured with the same rod."
He also stated that "he wanted the judges to be an example for the other magistrates and for La Pampa to give the corresponding sentence."
And without losing strength, he clarified:
"It did not happen, but I do not lose hope."
For her part, the baby's grandmother, Silvia Gómez, stated that the verdict is a
"relief"
and it was what they expected.
"The poster in hand with Lucio's photo helped me all the time," she said excitedly.
Silvia wants this judicial decision to bring peace to Lucio.
"This is
suffering that I carry with me every day.
We want him to rest in peace and this is a part of that process," she said.
Likewise, the Dupuy family lawyer, José Mario Aguerrido, said that
"Lucio will rest in peace"
, just after the verdict was read in the courtroom on the third floor of the Pampas courts.
"We are relatively satisfied. This ruling implies criminal responsibility for a triple aggravated homicide. Lucio will rest in peace," said the lawyer, who
began to cry
when the president of the court began to read the decision of the three magistrates.
Like Ramón, the lawyer questioned that Espósito Valenti had not been convicted of seriously outrageous sexual abuse.
“We want to see the foundations of the supposed rejection of the complaint proposal.
The sentence refers to the historical reconstruction of the event.
It must be extensive, now I will analyze it promptly to make considerations, to see if we insist on a recursive way", he affirmed.
He also pointed against the judicial decision because gender hatred
was not taken into account as an aggravating circumstance
.
Aguerrido stated: "It is a question that interests us, because we consider that there was a homicide motivated by gender hatred."
The Pampa.
Special Envoy
SC
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