The trial against the accused of sexually assaulting his partner's daughter when she was 12 years old in the municipality of San Bartolomé, which began last April in Arrecife, but had to be suspended because it was not possible to contact the victim and her mother, as well as the forensic psychologists, by videoconference, will resume on December 10 in Gran Canaria, according to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
It should be remembered that the Prosecutor's Office is asking for a 15-year prison sentence for Ramón Pérez Martín, who did testify at the trial in April, although he denied the facts. "Never in my life, never," said the accused, insisting that the facts he is accused of "are not true." "For me she was a daughter," said Ramón Pérez Martín, who did point out, however, that one day he arrived "with drinks" and was "playing" with the minor, he touched her, although he said it was unintentional, "without sexual purpose" and that he asked her for "forgiveness," assuring that he did not remember where he had touched the girl.
"I don't know if it was on the chest because I don't remember, because I had been drinking," he said then when questioned by the prosecutor, after the existence of a conversation recorded by the mother in which, apparently, the accused admitted to having touched the girl was revealed.
The facts according to the Public Prosecutor
Specifically, the facts being judged date back to 2013, when Ramón Pérez Martín lived with his partner between January and March, with whom he had been in a relationship for six years, and with her minor daughter, in a house in the municipality of San Bartolomé, which belonged to the accused.
And although he denied the facts, the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains that, at the beginning of March, "when the minor was alone with the defendant", since "her mother was working", Ramón Pérez Martín took advantage of the "special relationship of trust he had with the minor" and "encouraged by the desire to satisfy himself sexually and when the minor was going to sleep in her room, he approached her to give her a kiss on the cheek and touched her chest". According to the Prosecutor's Office's indictment, the accused told her that "it had been unintentional", but "sitting next to the minor on the sofa", he "again touched her chest". The next day, the defendant "apologized to the minor and told her not to tell her mother anything".
However, according to the Prosecutor's Office, "a few days later, when the minor was again at home" and "again alone" with the defendant, as her mother was again "working", Ramón Pérez Martín "sat on the sofa next to the minor and began to touch her breasts under her clothes and her genitals over" them, while saying: "This is not bad, you have to like it, this is what I do many times to girls your age when I work at night with the taxi". And the next day, taking advantage again that the accused was "alone with the minor after dinner", he began again to touch her "in the same way as the night before", at which point "the minor locked herself in her room", according to the indictment.
The Public Prosecutor's Office also maintains that, in April 2013, although the girl and her mother no longer "lived" with the accused, "the minor went to stay" at his house "because her mother was working" and that, then, Ramón Pérez Martín "strongly approached her from behind and began to rub his genitals against the minor's buttocks, and then took her to what had been the girl's room" in the house. There, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the accused threw "the minor on the bed" and lay "on top of her, while holding the minor's hands with one hand". "With the other hand he lifted her dress, pulled aside her underwear and inserted his penis into the minor's vagina, ejaculating inside," the indictment adds.
Supervised release is requested after serving the sentence
The Prosecutor's Office considers that these facts constitute a continuing crime of sexual assault and therefore asks for a sentence of 15 years in prison for the defendant, as well as that he be prohibited from approaching the victim or communicating with her for 18 years. Once the sentence has been served, it is also requested that he be placed on supervised release for a period of 10 years. With respect to this, it is indicated that it will consist of a prohibition from approaching the minor and also from attending "any children's playground" and in the "obligation to participate in sexual education courses".
The Public Prosecutor's Office also asks that the defendant compensate the victim with 80,000 euros for the moral damages caused. And, according to the indictment, as a consequence of the events, she "presents feelings of sadness, strong ambivalent feelings about the defendant, a high and generalized feeling of social distrust, a feeling of uselessness and a feeling of shame, translated into discomfort when people look at her, feeling inhibited and distant from others without a feeling of intimacy with anyone". This, it is pointed out, translates "into progressive social isolation and a depressive state that requires psychological treatment".
