Confirmation of conviction for the accused of mistreating his daughter for ten years

The Criminal Chamber upheld the sentence of eleven years in prison pronounced against a 59-year-old man found guilty of badually abusing a girl for ten years. It is RG (the identity is reserved for the protection of the privacy of the victim) who, in October of last year, had been sentenced for "corruption of minors, badual abuse with carnal access doubly aggravated by the fact that they had been committed by an ascendant and for treating the victim of a minor 18 years old, taking advantage of the pre-existing coexistence situation ".

A few days ago, an oral appeal court composed of judges Carolina Hernández, Daniel Acosta and Guillermo Llaudet decided to support the first instance decision, after badyzing the objections of the defense and the prosecution. . Thus, he has ratified the sentence in all of his points, even in which he establishes that the defendant remains under house arrest until the sentence becomes firm.

Complaint

According to the decision of the chamber, her father abused the complainant almost every day from the age of 7 to 17 years. At that time, as often in these cases, she never spoke of the situation that she was recently encouraged to denounce. Years after completion: One day she went to work and saw a poster encouraging her to make a presentation on gender-based violence. Then, with her parents already divorced and her grandmother dead, she dared to tell her story.

The young person "provided data and details about her father's abusive behavior," said Judge Carolina Hernández, referring to repeated violations of "friction and pain" inflicted on her by her father. He also made badgraphic movies.

According to the story, the abuse is compounded after the first badual experience with a boy of his age, under circumstances that the father encouraged in one way or another. From there, the defendant began to mistreat his daughter with carnal and badl access almost daily. In this sense, he took advantage of the time when his wife and mother were absent from their homes to go to work.

The story reached justice and in October of last year, R.G. It was the subject of an oral hearing before a tribunal composed of Silvia Castelli, Carlos Leiva and Mariano Alliau. Sexual crime prosecutor Alejandra Raigal has asked for a 14-year sentence, but at the end of the debate, the judges sentenced him to eleven years. In addition, this decision ordered the defendant to remain at home at the end of the preparatory investigation, as at the oral trial (see separate paragraph).

Call

The first instance resolution was appealed by both parties. Defender Daniel Giordano questioned him – as stated in the decision of the chamber – as it violated the principles of innocence, legality, equality and defense before the courts. He characterized the sentence as arbitrary, arguing that it rested solely on the testimony of the victim and did not take into account the statements of the accused, in addition to considering the statements of the others witnesses as fragile.

Giordano asked that there be "four totally different versions" of the charge and that "in the four stages, there was evidence or totally different versions". He stated that "there was no temporary space in which the accused was alone with the victim, contrary to what the Prosecutor wanted to prove," and questioned him about the fact that the victim had brought the charge of chance two years after the end of the situation. abuse

Giordano also rejected the conviction for bribery of minors to the extent that the badgraphic films mentioned by the girl "have never been found" in the house of the accused and baderted that it was not There was no evidence of attempted suicide. In this context, he requested the acquittal of R.G. by the principle of doubt.

For its part, the prosecutor highlighted the victim's abuse of power as a reason for denouncing the situation after its conclusion. And he asked to ratify the decision, except he was willing to maintain the house arrest of the already convicted convict, on the understanding that this conviction warranted actual imprisonment.

In this regard, the defense postulated that the benefit had not been nullified as there was no possibility of evidentiary nuisance or danger of flight, given the fact that RG She spent two years at home and never escaped. In addition, the issue of prudence was not the subject of the trial and, in his opinion, the decision is not final.

Environment

After badyzing both positions, the first vote of the court was left to Hernández, who found that the testimony of the victim was valid and credible, beyond the lack of concrete material evidence. In this sense, he cited cases of badual violence against children in the case law. "In these crimes, which occur outside the eyes of others and in areas of privacy, it is difficult to have eyewitnesses," that is why "indirect evidence, circumstantial evidence and the testimony of the victim are relevant ".

For the judge, it is "appropriate to confront the victim's words with those of the witnesses and other objective data in order to reach a final conviction of what happened and its correspondence with what was reported ". This does not imply, he says, the increased risk of giving credible credibility to any charge, especially when experience shows the "unpleasant frequency" with which such charges are used "to vindictive or extortional purposes ".

In this sense, it coincides with the test of first instance judges when badessing the victim's story and the circumstances that led to his suffering and the testimony given. For example, the time has elapsed until the complaint indicates that the fact that it was made after viewing a poster annoticiaba on this possibility "states the spontaneity of the disclosure and banned the idea of ​​a fabulation to harm an innocent person ". In addition, Hernandez understands that this delay is justified in the environment of the victim "unwilling to listen to their difficulties."

At this point, he cites studies of how children generally keep silent about these facts when they are not required to express them. "All surveys concur that the disclosure of badual badault does not usually occur immediately, that the closer the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, the more the child will hesitate to reveal the aggression, "he said. And he describes, from testimony, a scenario of "obvious vulnerability related to gender" in which the victim and his mother "have undergone the dominant patriarchal mandate." The family environment seems to naturalize the abusive behaviors and stop any attempt to stop them projecting in time, until he can communicate it, as she recounted it. "

In this case, warns the judge, are present "many factors identified by the doctrine and which influence the disclosure of badual abuse", as well as other common symptoms such as suicide attempts isolation and isolation. For Hernández, these factors confer "credibility and credibility" on the victim's story.

Why will he remain imprisoned in his house?

Another aspect of the decision that confirmed the sentence against R.G. was the revocation of his house arrest. In her appeal, the Office of the Prosecutor asked the convicted person to go behind bars, with the penalty increasing the risk of absconding. But cameraman Carolina Hernandez admits that "recursive possibilities remain and the sentence is not firm". It also states that, in this case, the revocation of the measure "seems to be linked only to a possible purpose of the decision" and there are no other "considerations inherent in a debate. prudential "allowing in the first time its treatment in the context of the call