A Las Palmas Court has sentenced four men accused of raping a Danish tourist to between 3 1/2 years and 8 1/2 years in prison, after one took advantage of her the other three then also abused the young woman during the early hours of the morning of December 25, 2016 at a shopping centre in the south of Gran Canaria.
The judge ruled that there is “sufficient evidence” to destroy any presumption of innocence of the four defendants, Mohamed EH, 31 years old; Ahmed A., and Brahim A., 30; and Ibrahim Y., 37, all of them foreign nationals legally domiciled in Spain, except for Brahim A., and who at the trial denied the evidence.
The victim´s statement was given “absolute credibility” based on “detailed analysis” of her testimony, along with video recordings and images from security cameras that had been installed at the Puerto Rico shopping centre, where the events took place, which were presented at the trial, alongside expert reports of her clothing analyses and the defendants’ own statements.
The court was in no doubt that the victim was at the time very drunk, based on her own statements, and those of witnesses, as well as the recordings from the cameras in the shopping centre analysed, which recorded the “violent aggression” of the initial attacker Mohamed EH, who as well as sexually assaulting the victim, tried to steal a gold chain from around her neck. He has been sentenced for both crimes – sexual assault and attempted robbery – to 8 years and 6 months in prison, as well as being required to compensate the victim with €25,000.
The next defendant who, according to the recordings, abused the tourist was Ahmed A., who has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for the crime of sexual abuse with carnal access (unlawful penetration) and the payment of €25,000 compensation.
The other two defendants, Brahim A., and Ibrahim Y., were also convicted of two crimes of sexual abuse, but without penetration, as well as complicit cooperation as each maintained vigilance while the other took their turn to abuse the tourist.
The sentence imposed for each is 3 years and 6 months in prison and the payment of €15,000 each in compensation.
In the case of both these two defendants, semen from each was found in the victim’s underwear, which made it possible to prove that acts of a sexual nature were carried out “without any doubt”, since the cameras also recorded images of each of them zipping up his pants, recorded the sentence.
The four convicted have been prohibited from approaching or communicating with the victim for a period of fifteen years, in the case of the main defendant, and between eight and six years in the case of the other three, as well as probation measures put in place for a period of six years for Mohamed EH and five years for the rest.
According to the proven facts, Mohamed EH was the first to corner the victim against a wall, penetrating her vaginally and leaving her in a semi-conscious state, then forty minutes later, Ahmed A. arrived, who was informed by the first attacker of where the tourist was, in a back hallway on the second floor of the Puerto Rico shopping centre.
The defendant Ahmed A. went to her location, in the company of another person who has not been identified, and also took advantage of the tourist’s situation, penetrating her vaginally while his accomplice kept watch.
After twenty minutes, the other two defendants, who had bee notified by the previous ones, appeared on the scene, and they also took advantage of the tourist, on whose underwear they ejaculated, taking turns to keep watch so as not to be discovered, as indicated in the account of these events.
