The First Section of the Provincial Court of Castellón has imposed sentences totaling ten and a half years in prison on a young man who kidnapped a man whom he brutally attacked and robbed; actions that the condemned man broadcast live on his Instagram social network account.
The events occurred on December 19, 2020 in the town of Benicarló and two minors also participated in them, already tried and convicted in that jurisdiction. The trial was held on May 16 and the sentence reproduces the crimes and penalties included in its final conclusions by the Public Prosecutor, to which both the private prosecution and the defense attorney adhered.
As recounted in the resolution, the convicted man, 18 years old, and two minors approached the victim, 31 years old, around 11 p.m. at the door of his home in Benicarló with the excuse of asking for a cigarette. They then sneaked into the house, tied him to a chair with duct tape and searched the house until they found a bank statement, at which point they began to threaten him so that he would accompany them to an ATM to withdraw money.
As the victim resisted, they began to beat him all over his body with the mechanical arm of an industrial iron mixer, a spanner, a metal pipe, and several wooden sticks. This situation lasted for a good part of the morning. The attackers broadcast their actions through an Instagram profile and the images were viewed by other young people on the same social network, who alerted the security forces.
The Civil Guard mounted an operation that culminated around 4:00 p.m. the following afternoon, on December 20, once they located the house where the events were taking place. The agents arrested the three suspects when they were leaving the house to go to the cashier of a bank to extract money with the card of the injured party, who remained inside his home and was later released.
The Provincial Court of Castellón has sentenced the defendant to four years in prison for a crime of illegal detention and three and a half years for a crime of injuries, since the victim was hospitalized for four days and has several scars on his face as a result of the blows received.
In addition, the magistrates impose another two and a half years in prison for the crime of robbery with violence and a fine for a crime of damage, for the damage caused to the home of the victim. Finally, they also sentenced him to six months in prison for a crime against moral integrity derived from the retransmission on the Internet of the violent treatment they subjected to the affected person.
The Court does not rule on a possible compensation as the injured party has reserved the actions that may be exercised by these facts in the civil jurisdiction. The sentence is not final and can be appealed to the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community.
