La Gomera Man Acquitted in Rape, False Imprisonment Case Due to Lack of Evidence
A man accused of raping and holding his ex-partner captive in La Gomera was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and inconsistencies in the accuser's testimony.
A man accused of repeatedly raping his ex-partner and holding her captive in her home in Playa de Santiago, La Gomera, has been acquitted by the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The court stated that it couldn't be proven that the accused entered the woman's house on February 1, 2016, by jumping over a wall without her permission. They also found no proof that he forced her to have sex without her consent, as she claimed six years later.
The court's decision says the complaint isn't backed up by other evidence and contains inconsistencies. While the court doesn't deny that "very serious events" may have occurred, it concludes that they haven't been proven.
The ruling mentions that the woman's account wasn't supported by evidence. There were no signs of injuries or visible marks on her body, and a physical and psychological evaluation wasn't done immediately after the alleged incident.
The court also found it hard to believe that the Civil Guard showed a lack of interest when the woman and her sister initially tried to report the incident, and that they both dropped the case out of fear of the accused.
After the trial, including statements from the defendant, the woman, witnesses, and reviewing the evidence, the court didn't find enough convincing evidence to convict the man, so they chose to acquit him.
The court cited a lack of direct witnesses and details, likely due to the delay in filing the complaint, as reasons for not finding the complaint fully credible.
There were also "various divergences or discrepancies of some relevance" between the statements of the alleged victim and her sister. For example, the woman said she entered her house alone the day after the incident, while her sister claimed the accused was with her.
There were also differences in the timeline of events, how she confessed what happened (once briefly and whispered, another time explicitly and hysterically), and where she spent the following night.
The prosecution had sought a 12-year prison sentence for trespassing and sexual assault, along with €18,000 in compensation. The defense maintained the man's innocence throughout the trial.