The judge at the San Bartolomé de Tirajana Court of Instruction No. 1 has ordered four defendants to be jailed on remand without bail, after they were arrested and appeared in court on the south of Gran Canaria, accused of an alleged sexual assault in a quiet neighbourhood park of Puerto Rico, Mogán, last Friday. The court heard their statements on Wednesday afternoon and they were ordered to take part in a line-up.
Three of the detainees are accused of a crime of sexual assault, and the fourth, as the main perpetrator, accused of two crimes also of sexual assault, in addition to the fact that each of them is an alleged accomplice to the sexual assaults committed by the others, one count for every member of the group.
The incident is alleged to have occurred in a small park area, located in the Agua La Perra barranco, on the eastern edge of Puerto Rico, last Friday night, according to a complaint filed on Sunday by the alleged victim. The 36-year-old woman, repeatedly reported as being of Irish nationality, however sources report this is incorrect and she is in fact of Nordic origins, has been living with her family in Puerto Rico for years. Press reports continue that she had been interested in the situation in which the group of young people found themselves, possibly starting up a conversation with them, when the alleged assault occurred, as reported to sources close to the investigation, however local sources close to the family refute this version of events.
One of the four arrested this Monday had apparently already been denounced by another victim for events of similar characteristics, that occurred in the same municipality of Mogán, say sources close to the investigation, who added that although he was arrested, he was later released.
The four arrested, had all been expelled from temporary accommodation centres, say press reports, and so are thought to have all been sleeping rough.
This has led to some anger among local groups campaigning for the removal of migrants from the municipality of Mogán, who have requested their supporters to “take photos” of any rough sleepers they find in the area, but to “not take the law into your own hands” it is not really very clear what it is hoped that may achieve, but it is thought that anything upwards of one hundred individuals could well be sleeping on the streets having left reception facilities either for bad behaviour or of their own volition.
