The Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA) has confirmed the four-year prison sentence imposed on Celta striker Santi Mina by the Provincial Court of Almería for sexually abusing a woman in Mojácar, although it partly upholds his appeal and lowers the sentence. compensation to the victim for moral damages from 50,000 to 25,000 euros.
The appeal section of the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJA has ratified the sentence of the Court of Almería that condemned the striker for a crime of sexual abuse, who returned to Celta training last Wednesday, a team with which he has a relationship one more season of the contract, and confirms the acquittal of his friend and also a footballer, David Goldar, who witnessed the events as he was the one with whom the victim had sexual relations when the assault by Mina took place.
The judgment of the TSJA accepts the proven facts of the resolution of the Court of Almería, which recounted the sexual abuse that occurred in July 2017 in a "camperized" van that was parked in the vicinity of a nightclub in Mójácar, where they spent the night and The two defendants were traveling with two other friends.
It only deletes the phrase "the concept of superiority", considering that there was no flawed consent of the victim, since neither in the account of the facts nor in the legal foundation of the judgment of the Court "there is no express mention that the victim consented to any of the abusive acts described”.
The Court rejects the convicted person's grounds for appeal, in which he indicates that his right to effective judicial protection was violated because the ruling of the Almería Court was not impartial when assessing the victim's statements and that there were contradictions in the different statements of the victim.
In this sense, the Chamber explains that the victim's account lacks "relevant contradictions in essential aspects."
The appeal section also rules out that the victim acted for a spurious motive, which would consist of obtaining large compensation and, according to the sentence, the testimony of the complainant "seems reliable" and appreciates "that she persisted in her incrimination and although, in In effect, if he added new facts in his second statement, it is ruled out that this point was relevant."
Thus, remember that the victim did not want to claim any type of compensation when her rights were instructed in the Court and it was the moment in which the complainant mentioned the second part of the sexual abuse recognized in the proven facts.
Regarding compensation for moral damages, the victim asked that it be increased from the 50,000 that the Court sentence included to almost 117,000 to compensate for the damage and its impact on his daily life, while the convicted person asked that it be reduced to 2,000 euros , being fixed by the TSJA at 25,000 euros.
In this sense, it explains that it must maintain the proportionality criterion established by the court with cases of the same characteristics and take into account objective factors such as the transience of the conduct prosecuted, the manifest desire of the victim in his first judicial statement not to receive compensation and the extent of the consequences reflected in the expert report of the forensic psychologist.
