The Provincial Court of Madrid has sentenced an employee of a residence to two years and two months in prison for sexually touching a 94-year-old woman.
The sentence known this Tuesday refers to some events that happened in August 2019 on the first day of the worker in the center.
In the trial held in February, the woman confirmed that the man touched her chest and pinched her nipples, while the defendant, for whom the Prosecutor's Office requested three years in prison, denied the facts and acknowledged that he could have made "mistakes" for his inexperience.
It was the woman herself who reported what had happened, after verifying how the condemned man misplaced her nightgown, exposing her chest.
Los Nogales, according to the ruling, immediately activated the ill-treatment protocol and communicated the facts to the General Directorate of the Mayor of the Community of Madrid.
In addition, the management of the center opened a file for him and changed his plant.
He finally fired him.
The company must face subsidiary civil liability as it is the condemned worker of its staff.
In a statement sent to this newspaper, Los Nogales affirms that the managers and professionals of the center maintained fluid communication with the family at all times and continued to provide follow-up, accompaniment and special support to the affected resident, who continues to reside in the same center.
In parallel, the appropriate actions were initiated to terminate the employment relationship with the employee.
"The center does not tolerate any act that goes against the well-being of the people who reside in it and strongly condemns this type of behavior, which it considers completely unacceptable," the letter says.
The magistrates assure that the victim was "clear when it came to defining the defendant's conduct to which he attributes an unequivocal sexual meaning" and that, despite the worker's denial of the crime, it is the complainant's version that achieved convince the court.
The sentence also condemns the worker to pay 3,500 euros for moral damages, to the prohibition of approaching less than 500 meters from the victim and disqualifies him for three years from the exercise of his profession: nursing assistant.
The events at this center occurred four months after a video came to light showing three employees mistreating a woman in another residence in Los Nogales, in the Hortaleza neighborhood.
Francisco Polonio, son of the affected woman, who found out what happened thanks to a hidden camera, tells this newspaper that his trial is still pending the qualification of the facts.
“As long as video cameras connected to the mobile phones of the residents' relatives are not placed in the residences, the truth will continue to be hidden,” he affirms.
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