The Court of Girona has sentenced the accused of sexually abusing five minors in Empuriabrava (Alt Empordà) between 2016 and 2019 to 24 and a half years in prison. The court concludes that he "took advantage" of the trust that the parents had in him and the girls' grandparents, with whom he established an "intense" friendship.
Three of the girls are sisters and the other two are stepsisters. According to the sentence, taking advantage of this bond between families, he touched the girls when they were alone in the room, on the couch at home, during playtime on the beach or when they were stretching at the gym. The victims were between 8 and 15 years old. At the trial, the victims' families said that the defendant was like an "adoptive grandfather" to the girls.
The ruling of the third section of the Girona Court, of which Judge Fátima Ramírez Souto was the speaker, states that the defendant, who was 60 years old at the time of the events, generated "bonds of affection and familiarity" with the parents and grandparents of the minors who "made it easier" for him to perpetrate the abuse: "They provided him with contact with the minors and a relaxation of the defensive brakes of the minors' families, who had no reason to think that the accused, breaking the bonds of affection and loyalty typical of the quasi-familial relationship that had been formed, would subject them to conduct that violated their sexual integrity.”
In fact, the sentence states that in the trial, which took place from February 20 to 23, the minors, their families and the defendant himself said that he had a role "like a grandfather" with them and that he shared time, both at meals family activities such as games or leisure time on the beach.
The convicted man, Thierry René Duboc, lived with his wife in an apartment in Empuriabrava. According to the ruling, the three sisters went to live in an apartment next door in 2015 and began to establish a relationship of friendship between the families: "The neighborly relationship intensified over time and the families began to share meals and outings. ".
The sentence states that he abused his older sister when she was 15 years old, the middle sister between 13 and 15 and the little one between 8 and 10 years old. The defendant followed a pattern of behavior because, in most cases and taking advantage of the freedom of movement he had due to that relationship of trust, he entered the minors' room when they were alone in the room and touched their parts. intimate under clothes.
He also had the same behavior when he stretched with one of the victims in the gym or when they went to the beach.
He shared time with the other two victims, who are stepsisters, in the summer of 2017, when the girls, then 11 and 13 years old, went to spend a few days on vacation with their grandparents in Empuriabrava. The accused was a friend of the minors' grandparents "for years." He also perpetrated the abuse while taking advantage of "games" or when they went to bathe at the beach.
When sentencing him, the Court states that "the fact that there are several people who report having suffered sexual abuse by the same accused, in a similar or identical scenario, reinforces and corroborates their statements." "If the statement of each of them is by itself credible and credible, together with the others it acquires greater accreditation force and constitutes an element of corroboration of the reality of the alleged facts."
Likewise, the court highlights that the defendant made a partial recognition of the facts when he testified during the investigation phase. At trial he denied it and blamed it on a translation error by the interpreter. The Court does not believe him and considers it a defense strategy.
The ruling also highlights the psychological and medical reports that show the psychological effects that the victims have suffered: "The reports do not deal with the credibility of the victims, but rather with their state of mental health and that, for the court, constitutes objective evidence." . Three of the minors have suffered symptoms compatible with sexual abuse.
The Court condemns the accused as the author of a continuous crime of sexual assault on a minor under 16 years of age with the introduction of bodily members with the advantage of the relationship of superiority, two continuous crimes of sexual assault on a minor taking advantage of the relationship of superiority and two crimes of sexual assault on a minor. The court appreciates the mitigating circumstance of undue delays due to the time that the case has taken to reach trial and imposes the sentence of 24 years, 6 months and 3 days in prison. The maximum time of serving the sentence will be 20 years. The defendant was on provisional release.
The sentence also condemns him to 8 years of supervised release once he is released from prison and Thierry René Duboc must compensate the five victims with a total of 69,000 euros. The sentence is not final and can be appealed by filing an appeal to the TSJC.
