Rape of Igualada: the detainee had a history of sexual violence in his family

Several weeks ago the investigators had put the magnifying glass on him, after ruling out various candidates. To narrow the circle on this young man, the police have resorted to clues such as the location of his mobile phone and the fact that he was someone who had already sexually assaulted him in the past. However, according to police sources, although it was increasingly clear to the Mossos that this neighbor was the man they most wanted to arrest given the social uproar, it has been necessary to follow him for weeks and continue collecting evidence against him before arresting him in order to gather evidence that judicially proves that he is guilty and thus avoid, among other things, that his arrest be rendered null and void after going to court next Saturday. According to the same sources, the follow-up to collect clues in recent weeks has also been a form of control to prevent him from reoffending and not It is not known that he has attacked any other woman since last November.

The Mossos consider the detainee the perpetrator of the attack Y no new arrests are planned. To date, it was believed that the brutal attack on the minor from Igualada could have been the work of a group of aggressors. The belief had linked the case with episodes as traumatic as the rape of the herd of Pamplona, ​​or that of Manresa or Molins de Rei. It has not been so: there is a single rapist who also had a record. Despite his arrest, investigators are unwilling to give more information about investigations that remain under summary secrecy.

The ‘nit case’ (‘night’, in Catalan) generated a great social alarm and motivated concentrations of rejection both in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain. That after half a year it was still unresolved increased the family frustration of the victim and the pressure on the Catalan police, who this Thursday morning finally announced at 5:00 am and through their Twitter account that they had already arrested their suspect.

The suspect’s house is in the center of Igualada, on Carrer de Sant Sebastià, next to Plaça de la Creu. For hours, researchers from the Unitat Central Agressions Sexuals (UCAS) have exhaustively searched the property, old like many in the area. They have done it in the presence of the arrested young man and searched mainly inside his room, among his belongings. This work will be key to being able to prove his link with the violation. Despite the time that has elapsed, various agents of the scientific police have searched for pieces of clothing that could compromise him or even that still contain biological remains of the victim. Finding a DNA test would be almost definitive proof.

The victim is a teenager who was 16 years old at the time and is studying high school. On the morning of October 31 to November 1, she went out to party with some friends and ended up at the Epic nightclub, located in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Igualada. Around four in the morning, she left the premises and went to catch the train station to return to Vilanova i la Geltrú, where her mother lives. She but she didn’t get to catch the train. She was found unconscious and half-naked around six in the morning by a truck driver, who, seeing her lying on the ground, believed that she was dead and covered her with a blanket before calling the emergency teams.

As soon as the toilets arrived, they realized that she was alive and was urgently transferred to the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona. She was admitted with a head injury and serious injuries caused by sexual assault that have required various surgical interventions. Her blow to the head has prevented her from recalling a traumatic experience but has also made it more difficult for investigators to identify the perpetrator of the assault, as she has been unable to provide any leads. And in the place where she was attacked then there were no security cameras. As a result of this attack they settled a month later.

After the attack, the victim’s family contacted this newspaper to ask for citizen collaboration. The mother this Thursday has attended several media in which she has been grateful for the resolution of this crime. “I am in shock, after so long waiting for divine and police justice to be done, the day has finally come. I have a strange feeling in my body,” she explained in statements to Catalunya Ràdio. The young woman, after the operations that she has had to overcome to heal from the wounds that caused her, has returned to the institute and tries to turn the page of a story that she hardly remembers but that she will hardly be able to forget.

The Central Unit for Sexual Assaults (UCAS) is a recently created unit that specializes in combating sexual assaults perpetrated by unknown perpetrators, or who act in series. In its more than two years of existence, it has resolved several cases, although this had become a priority for the Catalan body and a litmus test for the police. ‘The’ police in feminine because the UCAS is made up mostly of women: 22 of the 36 agents that form it are female, as is your manager.

An average of just over two sexual assaults are reported daily in Catalonia, according to data from the autonomous body. The vast majority of these crimes are suffered by women and are always committed by men. Due to the fact that police agencies have historically been men’s places and that investigator positions are desired positions that are accessed after a few years of experience, what almost always ended up happening is that women attacked by men had to put themselves in the hands of men. men to receive justice. Those responsible for the Mossos believed that perhaps it would be less complicated for the victims to open up and testify before a police officer who was also a woman. That is why they created the UCAS.