The Fiscal Superior of Canarias, Jaime Serrano-Jover, denounced this Friday the "savagery" that the 42% increase in sexual assaults on minors under 16 years of age recorded in 2025 compared with the previous year represents, with a jump from 332 to 472 open proceedings.
During his intervention before the Commission on Governance, Autonomous Development and Justice of the Parliament of Canarias, he pointed out that nearly 2,600 preliminary proceedings were instituted last year for crimes against sexual freedom, which represents an increase of 20%, and warned that these proceedings "multiply" each year.
Serrano-Jover has called for a "deep reflection" upon noting that society shows symptoms of being "unhinged", calling for a reinforcement of education in all areas, given that the Prosecutor's Office lacks preventive capacity and only acts "when there is no turning back".
In global terms, he specified that in 2025 121,753 preliminary proceedings were instituted, 3.3% more than the previous year, with 66,707 in the province of Las Palmas and 58,048 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is the highest figure of the last five years and reflects a notable increase compared with the 108,000 proceedings of 2021, which he described as "abysmal" differences.
He underlined that his main concern is the backlog, with more than 31,000 proceedings still unresolved, which causes that, when justice "arrives late", it "loses part of its meaning".
The prosecutor also highlighted the "paradox" that Canarias has spent seven years as the autonomous community with the "greatest litigiousness" and, nevertheless, maintains a case resolution level 15% above the state average, which in his opinion shows that the current judicial staff "cannot be squeezed" any further.
He praised the "extraordinary vocation of public service" of the personnel of the Administration of Justice and, in particular, indicated that the Prosecutor's Office "has been up to the task", with 10,556 trial briefs and 10,499 plea-bargain sentences processed in the Duty Court.
In total, the prosecutors have taken part in 14,781 trials, 30% more than the previous year, and 700 own investigative proceedings have been instituted, which implies an increase of 14%.
Serrano-Jover also drew attention to the rebound in murders and homicides, which increase by 17% to reach 133 cases in the last year and practically double in the last four-year period. "This deserves a joint reflection," he stated.
Likewise, he has focused on gender violence offenses, where he observes "a very wide margin of acquittal verdicts," which, in his view, makes it "quite likely" that many victims abandon the proceedings, "perhaps maybe because they were not given sufficient attention to get them to remain in it, for example by exercising their right not to testify".
Rise in violence on networks and cybercrime
The Chief Prosecutor has also pointed to the increase in violence carried out through social media, which complicates the tracing and investigative work as it is done, to a large extent, through fake profiles.
Although crimes against property are down 6%, he has warned of an "exponential growth" in scams committed through cybercrime. At the same time, he has put the emphasis on the situation of some 600 discharged patients who continue to be admitted in hospitals in the archipelago because their families do not pick them up, a circumstance that he links to the lack of social-healthcare places.
Serrano-Jover has likewise warned of the increase in assaults on teachers and professors, and has called for regulatory changes, since at present the staff of private and state-subsidized centers do not have the same coverage.
He has taken advantage of his appearance before the deputies to reiterate "old demands", such as the construction of a City of Justice in Santa Cruz de Tenerife that puts an end to the "dispersion" of the court headquarters, as well as the building of a Palace of Justice in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura), given that the current facilities would probably not pass the safety and occupational health "filters".
He has insisted that this request is not "capricious" and responds both to the needs of the prosecutors' staff and to those of the public, criticizing the fact that solutions that began as temporary have become permanent.
Serrano-Jover has valued the granting of 20 new prosecutor positions for the archipelago by the Ministry of Justice, but has at the same time called for stable staffs and for Canarias to stop being "a transit Prosecutor's Office".
Finally, he has defended that the implementation of the electronic case file is "essential" and that "there is no turning back", despite the "deficiencies" that the system still presents.