Spanish court upgrades attack on teenager by 'Wolf Pack' to gang rape
The controversial case has led to protests in Spain calling for tougher punishments over sex crimes.
Friday 21 June 2019 18:58, UK
An attack on a woman by five men has been ruled as gang rape instead of the original verdict of sexual abuse.
The group, known as the "Wolf Pack", were originally sentenced to nine years in jail.
However, Spain's supreme court increased their sentences to 15 years after upgrading the conviction.
The decision comes after judges accepted the victim's ordeal met the requirement in Spanish law that the plaintiff in a rape case must present evidence of intimidation or specific violence.
Lawyers for the woman, who was 18 when she was gang-raped in a doorway early at the 2016 San Fermin festival, argued shock and fear had stopped her from fighting them.
The supreme court agreed, saying the attack "cannot be considered a crime of sexual abuse, but a crime of rape...because the factual account describes a scenario of true intimidation, in which the victim did not at any moment consent to the sexual acts carried out by the accused".
Both the woman and the five men had appealed to Spain's highest court following the original conviction and sentencing.
The men, who included a serving police officer, had shared videos of the incident in a WhatsApp group and joked about it shortly afterwards.
The teenager was found crying on a bench by a couple who rang the police when she said she had been attacked.
One of the men was sentenced to an additional two years in jail for stealing the victim's phone.
They were also ordered to pay her a total of £89,000 in compensation.
The defendants' lawyers had argued the woman consented to sex.
"The victim could have said 'No'," lawyer Agustin Martinez told the court.
The lower court had said the men could not be convicted of rape without proof they had used physical violence.
But Spain's public prosecutor Isabel Rodriguez agreed in court that violence and intimidation was used, saying: "You can't ask victims to act in a dangerously heroic way."
The original decision led to protests throughout Spain with many calling for tougher punishment of sex crimes.
Marisa Soleto, head of the Women's Foundation pro-equality group, welcomed the ruling but added: "We still demand that the legislation for crimes against sexual freedom be reviewed."