The Provincial Court of Almería has imposed a sentence of eight years in prison on a man who sexually assaulted an acquaintance who had hired him to clean her home with the intention of helping him financially. At the time of the assault, the woman managed to escape thanks to a stratagem with which she managed to deceive the accused and notify the police.
According to the judicial resolution, against which an appeal can be filed, it was proven that the accused, of Malian origin and with no prior criminal record, appeared around 9:35 a.m. on October 10, 2024, at a house located in the Poniente almeriense, where he had arranged to meet the victim for cleaning tasks.
At a certain point and with the "intent to attack the sexual freedom" of the woman, the man approached her from behind, pushed her onto a bed, and threw himself on top of her, holding her tightly while grabbing her by the neck and covering her mouth to prevent her from calling for help.
Despite the "terror" the victim suffered during the sexual assault, she managed to "deceive him" and "get away from him" by making him believe that they would have sexual relations if he let her smoke a cigarette. The accused agreed and allowed her to get up to get the tobacco, which was in the dining room, an instant that the woman took advantage of to go outside and call the police with her mobile phone.
The officers, who had already been alerted by several neighbors who heard the woman's screams, managed to locate the accused as he was trying to leave the area and proceeded to arrest him.
In court, the woman stated that she knew the man from his work at an establishment and that they maintained a friendship. She explained that, after he told her he had no money, she decided to help him by offering him to come to her home to clean in exchange for a sum of money, a task she had done for several days and for which she hired him again.
The Second Chamber of the Court especially valued the victim's "persistent," "clear," and "uncontradictory" statement, who had hired the accused for 20 euros, along with the rest of the evidence presented at the trial, both testimonial and expert.
The medical reports incorporated into the case recorded injuries to the face and neck consistent with the assault, while the report from the Guardia Civil's biology department found genetic profiles of the accused on the woman's clothing and body.
The opinions of the medical and psychological experts who examined the victim were also added, as well as the statement of a Local Police officer who described how he found her upon arrival, at the door of the home "barefoot, disheveled, and crying", while she told them that "an acquaintance had raped her".
The sentence also establishes for the convicted person a fine of two months, at a rate of 12 euros per day, for a crime of injury. When setting the penalty, the court took into account not only the sexual assault itself, but also the "fear" the woman experienced of "dying from suffocation" when she was held by the neck and her mouth was covered.