Two men are on trial for sexually assaulting a minor in state care in Mallorca

PalmThe First Section of the Provincial Court of Palma will try two men next Thursday accused of sexually assaulting a minor who, at the time, was between 14 and 15 years old and under the guardianship of the Administration in Mallorca. A third defendant in the same case will not be in the dock because he is currently a fugitive. According to the indictment from the Public Prosecutor's Office, the events occurred between the summer of 2019 and February 2020. During this period, the minor was allegedly the victim of at least three sexual assaults: two allegedly committed by one of the defendants and a third attributed to the second defendant. The Prosecutor's Office is requesting a 12-year prison sentence for each of the men as alleged perpetrators of two counts of sexual assault against a minor under 16 years of age. Furthermore, the prosecution is demanding that they jointly compensate the victim with a total of €30,000 and that a restraining order be imposed on them for 12 years with respect to the victim, who is now an adult. The first assault allegedly occurred when the minor stayed overnight for several days at the home of one of the defendants, on an unspecified date. According to the prosecution, one morning, when the young woman woke up, the man was lying next to her and propositioned her for sex. When the minor refused, the accused allegedly touched her inappropriately and attempted to rape her. On a second occasion, with the same man, the victim was in a bar when the accused turned off the establishment's security cameras and forced her into a storage room where he had set up a bed. There, he allegedly attempted to rape her again, but was unsuccessful because another person entered the bar asking for him. The third sexual assault attributed to the second defendant also allegedly began in a bar, where the two met. They later went to the defendant's home, where, according to the prosecutor's account, he forced the minor into one of the bathrooms and raped her. The third defendant, also under investigation for the same events, will not be tried at this hearing as he is currently a fugitive.