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ARCHIVED - Reduced prison terms for rapists: the inadvertent consequence of groundbreaking sexual abuse law in Spain
Five convicted sex offenders in Spain have already been released because of a glitch in the wording of the ‘Only Yes is Yes’ law
Spain’s pioneering ‘Only Yes is Yes’ sexual equality law, which came into force barely a month ago, is already buckling under pressure, with the sentences of at least 11 convicted sex offenders reduced so far, of which five have led to the release of the prisoners.
Passed on October 7 of this year, the sexual freedom law eliminates the distinction between abuse and rape. The groundbreaking legislation lowered the minimum sentences for the least serious crimes and increased the maximum prison terms for the harshest.
For this reason, all those convicted with the old minimum sentence can now request a review of their sentences, since, if they had been tried under the current law, their sentence would have been shorter.
The wording of the new law also indicates that consensual sexual relations between an adult and minors over the age of 16 does not constitute a crime, unless the consent is given using violence, intimidation or taking advantage of some vulnerability of the victim.
The inadvertent consequence of the reform, therefore, is that many convictions, particularly those involving minors, are being overturned since the legislation technically declassifies them as crimes.
Before the entry into force of the Only Yes is Yes law, article 182 of the Penal Code set prison sentences of one to three years for those who, from a recognised position of trust or influence over the victim, performed acts of a sexual nature with a person between the ages of 16 and 18.
“The law practically lowers all the penalties for the most serious crimes. As it unifies abuse and rape in a single crime, it raises the lowest penalties (although very little) and, instead, those that were previously considered aggression (the most serious crimes) have now been greatly reduced,” one legal expert explains.
Of the prison releases carried out so far, the most high-profile case involves an English teacher convicted of continuously sexually abusing four of his underage students and for possession of child pornography. His initial sentence of almost seven years has been reduced by the courts to just a year and a half, and the sex offender is now even considering filing for compensation.
Also in Madrid, the sentence review of a man convicted of abusing his 4-year-old niece has resulted in his “immediate freedom”.
For now, only a trickle of requests for shorter sentences have been processed in the courts but this is expected to quickly turn into an avalanche, and a motion has already been submitted to the Spanish government to urgently review the new rule.
“Every day that passes we are going to see that these sexual crimes against women and children are not going to be punished as before. It is in our hands [to make sure] that this damage is not perpetuated,” councillor Javier Maroto stressed this week.
Image: Pixabay
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