In December 2020, the creation of the central unit for sexual assaults (UCAS) meant a before and after in the treatment of the most serious sexual crimes (it goes without saying that all assaults are terrible for the woman who suffers them). This modest unit, which was born after the insistence of those in charge of the general police investigation department of the Mossos d'Esquadra, had the priority of placing the victims at the epicenter of investigations that, from the very beginning, worked hand in hand with a group of analysts tasked with examining with a magnifying glass the avalanche of daily complaints. Three years later, the Catalan police take a step further: they now focus on the aggressors and strengthen this analysis group, which now has the rank of a unit, and which will be responsible not only for collaborating with the investigators by providing profiles of suspects, but also for monitoring and monitoring the thousands of sexual aggressors who are currently at large in Catalonia.
Yes, you read that right and the number is scary. In Catalonia, the Mossos control, monitor or in some way protect close to a thousand men who at some point have been the protagonists of sexual crimes, who are at liberty, and for whom they are pending. Either because they are complying with some precautionary measure issued by a judge or they have an international or national search warrant. There are also, and they are the most dangerous, 18 men released after serving their respective sentences who have not participated in any reintegration program or, if they have, have failed, and of whom there are reports that there is a high risk of re-offending. They neither own up to the crime they committed nor do they regret it.
The Prosecutor's Office is in charge of ordering the Mossos to monitor these men after serving their sentence and the manner in which they are carried out. In any case, it is a discreet police monitoring, which cannot be invasive because they have no pending cases. Today, none have 24-hour police control.
Sexual crimes continue to be the terrible protagonists of the current criminal situation in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. There is still a long way to go in terms of preventing a crime that continues to grow, as evidenced by the figures provided yesterday by the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, and Inspector Monsterrat Escudé during the presentation of the new analysis unit.
In the first half of this year, the Mossos d'Esquadra alone collected 2,063 complaints of sexual crimes and attended to 2,412 victims. The division is scary, but it should be done because it results in the fact that every day, and in Catalonia alone, 13 women go to a police station to report that they have suffered sexual assault. This without taking into account all those who report it in a municipal police station, the National Police, the Civil Guard, or the many who are still silent due to multiple factors ranging from fear to mistrust.
The figure indicates a growth in the number of complaints of 16% in relation to the same semester of the previous year. A figure that Inspector Escudé wanted to interpret positively, because it is possible. Because this increase in complaints also deserves to be read about the awareness that began to materialize after the violation of L a Manada in Pamplona and that has allowed a legislative change and a new way of managing these crimes in police, judicial and social terms, which has pushed many victims to cross the threshold of the police stations.
The Mossos hope that the new analysis unit will start working after the summer. With the current UCAS, the two units will integrate the new central area of sexual violence, which will double the number of police officers, mostly women, starting with its manager, Inspector Kira Estrada.
The working methodology will not change, because it is working and UCAS has become a benchmark in research that has already crossed borders. The complicated investigation that found the alleged sexual aggressor from Igualada, during the chestnut season of 2021, put the spotlight on this group of researchers. By the way, the judge in charge of the case told Brian yesterday that he will not only be tried for an alleged crime of sexual assault, but will also be charged with a crime of attempted murder.
UCAS shielded the victim and today still accompanies him every time, as yesterday, his case bursts into the media or he has to do something.
Over time, the unit faced another case that marked the new work methodology that is now consolidated. The so-called rider violator. A fake delivery man who took advantage of pandemic restrictions to rape five women.
In this case, and with the prosecutor who participated in the trial, Alexandra García Tabernero, the Mossos made a report in which they analyzed the behavior of the aggressor and which made it possible to establish a pattern of behavior that linked the then accused to the five victims. The prosecutor requested that the UCAS analyst participate in the trial as an expert and his account was fundamental to the sentence of eleven years in prison.
