The Provincial Court of Pontevedra will hold the trial next week against the owner of a bar in Marín accused of assaulting a customer with a disability, whom he invited to "play" a supposed game in which both had to slap each other and in which, according to him, he could win a ham. The mockery towards the man took place in front of the other customers of the establishment, who witnessed the scene without reporting it, and it was even recorded on video.
The events date back to December 2023, when the accused was in the establishment he runs in Marín and where the victim, who has more than 70% intellectual disability, was a "regular customer".
According to the indictment, with the intention of ridiculing the man, the accused proposed "a game consisting of slapping each other", despite knowing that the victim "could not understand the scope of the game, nor its consequences".
"In the course of the game, the accused, with the intention of undermining his physical integrity, struck the victim several times, who under the belief that it was a game and that he could win a ham if he was the winner, returned some of the blows received," details the Prosecutor's Office. The scene took place in front of the present customers, who, "in a joking tone, gave the victim instructions on how he should hit, or the body posture he should adopt to better absorb the blow".
At one point in the "game", the accused delivered an especially strong slap to the victim, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. For the Public Prosecutor's Office, the accused "executed this game with full exploitation of the victim's vulnerability and with the intention of mocking him in front of the customers who were inside the bar at that moment, generating a situation of humiliation and degradation".
The events were recorded by one of the people present in the establishment, without the consent of the victim and without the author of the filming being identified. The video was circulated among some of the neighbors of the town of Marín.
It was a niece of the victim, who had access to the recording, who finally filed the complaint with the authorities.
The Prosecutor's Office qualifies the facts as a minor offense of mistreatment committed in the exercise of fundamental rights, appreciating the aggravating factor of discrimination due to disability. It requests for the accused a sentence of one year and four months in prison, a fine, and the payment of compensation of 4,000 euros in favor of the victim.