Date Published: 13/05/2021
ARCHIVED - Prison threat for landowner in case of two year old who died after falling down Malaga well
A judge is currently considering whether to send the owner of the land where two-year-old Julen died in Totalan, Malaga, to prison.
More than two years after the disappearance of Julen, who fell down a borehole on a plot of land in Malaga, a judge is examining whether David Serrano, the owner of the land, should go to prison after failing to pay the compensation he was ordered to give the Junta de Andalucia and the boy’s parents.
The man had initially been sentenced to one year in prison for negligent manslaughter by a court in Malaga following the death of Julen in January 2019, but his sentence was suspended as he had no criminal record and had admitted the offence if he paid €663,982.45 to the Junta de Andalucia and €89,529.27 to each of the boy’s parents.
After declaring himself bankrupt however, David Serrano was allowed to instead make payments of €50 a month.
A court in Malaga now heard that he only made two payments in the beginning of 2020 before quickly making a €500 payment at the end of last year, which his lawyer says he had to lend him.
The judge in the case in now examining whether David Serrano should be sent to prison to serve his one year sentence for negligent manslaughter after failing to pay.
The death of Julen sparked international coverage when the boy disappeared down a 72-metre hole on the land of family friend David Serrano in January 2019.
Rescue workers spent almost two weeks digging a parallel hole to reach the boy in the hopes of trying to find him alive, before they later found Julen’s body.
David Serrano was accused of having ordered the borehole to be dug illegally to try to find water with the intention of illegally building a home on his land, but the owner instead blamed the man who drilled the hole.
A court later found David Serrano guilty of negligent manslaughter.
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