On next January 11, the trial against the Colmenar Viejo couple to whom it is attributed that they subjected their eight minor children for years to an alleged "climate of terror," with episodes of physical and psychological abuse, isolation and sexual assaults, will begin in Section 27 of the Provincial Court of Madrid. The oral hearing will last, according to legal sources indicated to Europa Press, until February 26.
The Prosecutor's Office is seeking for each of the parents sentences close to 130 years in prison, while the Community of Madrid, which is acting as the plaintiff, raises its request to 225 years in prison for the father and 178 years for the mother, based on the set of crimes it imputes to them.
According to the prosecution briefs, the events would have taken place between 2015 and 2023 in the family home. During that period, the minors would have allegedly been continually punished with beatings, humiliation, isolation from their surroundings, and deprivation of food and hours of sleep, in addition to alleged sexual assaults on two of the older daughters.
The parents were arrested on March 29, 2023 by order of Investigation Court No. 1 of Colmenar Viejo, after signs of abandonment and continued abuse were detected in an investigation by the Judicial Police Team of the Civil Guard. After the judicial intervention, the eight siblings came under the guardianship of the Community of Madrid.
Confinements in the basement as punishment
According to the accusatory account, the basement of the house was used as a space of isolation where the parents locked their children for hours, against their will, as a form of punishment and to keep them apart from the rest of the family nucleus.
"Habitually, the defendants systematically, and with the intent to undermine the moral integrity of their children, subjected them to acts of contempt and humiliation, isolating them from the environment, both family and possible friendships," the prosecution notes, which especially emphasizes the situation of the three oldest children.
One of the described episodes would have occurred when one of the boys was nine years old. Always according to the prosecution, the minor remained locked in the basement while his siblings celebrated a holiday. The father would have taken him up to the living room for a few minutes so he could see how the others were having fun and, afterward, would have returned him again to the basement.
The writings also record the use of different objects to hit the minors. In one of the passages, the father is attributed with a blow to the head to one of his daughters with a rolling pin, causing her a wound and abundant bleeding, after which the girl was attended to by her mother.
Continued harm and psychological aftereffects
The accusation charges both parents with crimes of habitual abuse, numerous crimes of injury, degrading treatment, illegal detention, threats, and sexual assaults against minors under 16 years of age, in addition to liability by omission in different episodes.
The judicial account includes assaults with blunt objects, blows directed at the head, immobilization maneuvers, and death threats. Regarding two of the older daughters, alleged examinations and sexual touching are also detailed.
The facts would have caused significant physical and emotional aftereffects in seven of the minors. The expert reports incorporated into the proceedings describe anxious-depressive symptoms, very low self-esteem, self-harming behaviors, and traits compatible with prolonged traumatic experiences.
The Community of Madrid likewise requests disqualification from exercising parental authority, as well as restraining orders and prohibitions on communication with the minors, in addition to periods of supervised release once any prison sentences that may be imposed have been served.