The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a civil guard agent to four and a half years in prison for a crime of revelation of secrets. The agent has been found guilty of using a police information system to access sensitive data of two of his ex-partners and people in his circle.
Both ex-partners had filed complaints against him for gender violence. One of them even had to move to Lanzarote.
In total, the defendant must also compensate eight people with amounts ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 euros, although one of them waived compensation. The sentence, issued two weeks ago, is not final and can be appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC).
Information about former partners, new relationships, and coworkers
The Court considers it proven that the accused had access to several information systems with data affecting people's privacy, including police profiles, alerts, criminal records, addresses, or documentation.
The agent allegedly consulted information relating to former partners, their new relationships, and coworkers, including criminal records, cases they had been involved in, and traffic fines.
The defendant was stationed at the Tacoronte and Radazul posts, and the internal investigation analyzed the queries he made over several years, until he took sick leave for depression in 2023.
The investigation also revealed that he had consulted the files of about twenty vehicles, which initially led to suspicions of possible activity related to car sales due to the high number of records, as well as issues related to drug trafficking, which were not proven.
A "high number of queries"
Civil Guard IT staff testified during the trial that alarms were triggered upon confirming "the high number of recurring queries," especially about people in the accused's circle.
As a result, an internal audit was carried out, reviewing the queries made during the investigated period, and one of the technicians who prepared the report ruled out during the trial that the system could have made errors.
The defense insisted that some queries were made outside the accused's working hours and after his shift ended, although the superiors explained during the trial that agents sometimes remain at their posts to finish proceedings.
The queries focused on his ex-wife, whom he monitored for years
The queries focused especially on his ex-wife, who had reported him for gender-based violence and who during the hearing showed her surprise and discomfort because the accused continued to monitor her after so many years.
He also consulted information about his ex-wife's father, sister, and niece, with whom he had a bad relationship, as well as about other former partners.
One of them acknowledged that on one occasion she had asked him to check if a car she was going to buy had any pending fines, although she claimed to be unaware that making such a query was illegal.
Among the people whose data were consulted are also a sister of one of his partners and the owner of a property that she had rented.
016 telephone line for victims of gender-based violence
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