Vicarious violence is a type of gender violence in which a man attacks the children of the abused woman with the aim of harming her. Ruth Ortiz, the mother of Ruth and José, the two children who were murdered by their father José Bretón in Córdoba in 2011, made a letter public through Radio Televisión Española at the end of 2024 in which, among other points, she highlighted: "I only believe in education as a method and way to eradicate machismo, gender violence and within it, vicarious violence. There will always be psychopaths who end up murdering, but it will be a small percentage compared to all the murderers who are not psychopaths but are macho and abusers who believe they are superior and owners of women".
Since 2013, when these types of cases began to be counted, 62 minors have been murdered by their biological parents, partners or ex-partners of their mothers, according to the Government of Spain and 475 children have been orphaned.
A mother victim of gender violence who must take her daughter to the family meeting point of Lanzarote, a specialized resource that seeks to facilitate the relationship between minors and their parents in conflict situations, denounced before the Deputy of the Common, before the College of Psychology of Las Palmas and before the Cabildo of Lanzarote that she feels "absolutely helpless, coerced and belittled" by the staff working in the resource. This editorial staff has tried to contact the meeting point twice by email to obtain their version, but there has been no response, while they have not responded to the request in a telephone call.
In the document dated September 2024, the mother highlighted that from this space they "have come to question, without having the capacity to do so, the medical reports of the professionals of the Social Security" and assures that they "have not shown interest in contacting" the different specialists who treat her six-year-old daughter. In this document, the mother added that from the family meeting point they have accused her of "manipulating her daughter" in order not to attend visits with her father, against whom there is an open judicial procedure outside the country for alleged sexual abuse against the minor.
"They cannot put a child, a little angel, with their aggressor," the mother states in statements to La Voz. This woman relied on reports from up to two psychologists from the Insular Service of Attention to Women (SIAM) and a forensic psychologist to denounce before the Deputy of the Common that her daughter presented "vomiting, headaches and stomach pains" when she has to go to the center. As well as medical reports from the Canarian Health Service that "go so far as to affirm the need to suspend these visits" to the meeting point, "as a therapeutic measure", as stated in the writing to which this editorial staff has had access.
In this sense, in the aforementioned text she has defended that she "always" went to the meeting point when she was asked and "showed justification when I could not do so". At the same time, she has highlighted that she delivered her daughter's medical reports to the space and that "they have not even wanted to read them". Among the information that she brought to the attention of these three institutions, she also included that, according to her version, from the center they had told her that "they have many children who have suffered abuse from their parents and continue to make supervised visits".
"I want my daughter to grow up, have fun, have a partner and not have that fear and be traumatized," adds the mother. This mother has insisted that from this space they "have issued completely false information" about her and that they "have lied" about the minor's absences in the visits, which she assures are "fully justified". At the same time, she has highlighted that "the actors of the PEF have always avoided entering to assess the abuse of my daughter or informing the court about the convenience or not of continuing these visits, or assessing the girl through psychological tests or medical tests".
In the complaint sent to the Deputy of the Common, she has added the alleged "lack of impartiality" of the resource and accuses them of "having ignored medical reports". At the same time, she has asked to "remove these professionals from the guardianship of my matter and my daughter for their partiality against me and for having harmed" both of them.
Visits by court order
In April 2024, the Public Prosecutor's Office issued a statement requesting the Court of Instruction number 1 of Arrecife to suspend the girl's visits with her father at the family meeting point of Arrcife. "Faced with the right of visitation of the parent, the best interests of the minor must prevail," the Prosecutor's Office highlighted in an open procedure to achieve the modification of measures.
According to this writing, the Prosecutor's Office defended that, despite the fact that there was a report from the meeting point that reflected "the constant refusal of the mother to go with the minor to the supervised visits" and that this "would give rise to forced execution", there is "a clear animosity of the minor with respect to the father", since the girl "expressly manifests to the technicians her will not to want to see him and even considers him non-existent". However, the judicial obligation to attend the visits has been maintained.