The Second Section of the Provincial Court of Las Palmas has considered proven five of the six crimes imputed to Michael Robson Salmon, known as "Doctor Mike", for whom it has imposed a sentence of four years in prison for four different crimes of abuse, in addition to nine months of fine, with a daily fee of six euros, for professional intrusion.
That is what the sentence issued this Monday, October 30, establishes, which substantially reduces the penalty requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office, which increased its request for imprisonment for Doctor Mike from four to eight years, after listening during the trial to the testimony of one of the victims, considering that in that case it was an abuse aggravated by penetration.
Finally, this request has not been taken into account, nor has the complaint of one of the five patients who initiated legal actions against Michael Robson, since her previous statement was available, but she did not attend the trial and therefore her testimony could not be heard. However, in the case of three other complainants, the Provincial Court has even increased the penalty requested by the Prosecutor, who for those three cases did not demand imprisonment, but fines.
"Taking into consideration (...) the situation exposed in which the abuses occur and the consequent especially humiliating character of the same, the imposition of the prison sentence is appropriate and, specifically, that of one year for each of the four crimes of sexual abuse for which Michael Robson is accused, with the legal accessory (art 56 CP) of special disqualification for the right of passive suffrage during the time of the sentence", the sentence states.
Among other things, the Court considers that "the touching carried out by the accused in intimate areas of the witnesses Sally, Susana and Dionna has been proven, with the sole purpose of satisfying the sexual desires of the former, that is, without any therapeutic purpose. Likewise, from the testimony of the aforementioned ladies, it is proven that they did not consent to such touching, since they went to the accused's office to receive a reflexology massage, never returning to said office after the events under consideration".
Regarding the defense of Michael Robson, which maintained that the complaint was a response to a "revenge" from his former patients, the sentence emphasizes that "there is no doubt" about their testimonies, "since the witnesses were convincing before the Court, not incurring in contradictions with what was declared in the instruction phase. And the fact that they all coincided later and decided to file the complaint that gave rise to this case, cannot be taken against them, since they all lived in the same area, and it was precisely the fact of knowing that the same thing had happened to other women as to each of them, which encouraged them to denounce, without this circumstance vitiating their testimony in any way".
