Advertisement

Spanish 'Wolf Pack' rapists sentenced for second sexual assault

The Local Spain/AFP
The Local Spain/AFP - [email protected]
Spanish 'Wolf Pack' rapists sentenced for second sexual assault
Archive image showing a protestor with mugshots of the "wolf pack" held up during a protest. Photo: AFP

Four members of Spain's notorious "Wolf pack" sentenced for gang-raping a woman in a case that shocked Spain on Thursday received further jail terms for an earlier sexual assault.

Advertisement

Four members of Spain's notorious "Wolf pack" sentenced for gang-raping a woman in a case that shocked Spain on Thursday received further jail terms for an earlier sexual assault.

A court in the southern city of Cordoba handed three of the young men prison terms of two years and ten months for sexual assault and breach of privacy for having filmed abuse of an unconscious woman.

Another defendant was given a four years and six months sentence after being found to have shared images of the assault to members of two WhatsApp groups, the court stated.

Prosecutors had sought six-year jail terms for the four, who all pleaded not guilty.

The four will also have to pay 13,150 euros ($15,000) in damages to the woman, who was 21 at the time of the assault, which happened in May 2016, just weeks before their gang-rape of an 18-year-old woman during Spain's San Fermin bullfighting festival in Pamplona in July 2016.

Spain's Supreme Court jailed them for 15 years for that assault which sent shockwaves through the country - but only after mass protests against a more lenient sentence on lesser charges.

The five-strong group called themselves "The Pack" in a WhatsApp group where they shared video images of the gang rape.  

Advertisement

Spanish media began calling them the "Wolf Pack" because one has a tattoo of a howling wolf on his foot, with the words "The power of the wolf lies in the pack".

The San Fermin case shocked Spain not just because of the nature of the crime but because the five men were initially sentenced by lower courts on lesser offences of assault rather than rape to nine years in jail, sparking huge protests and calls for the country's rape laws to be changed.   

The judge in Cordoba said Thursday's verdicts were justified by the "personal circumstances of the accused, who after the facts went on to indulge in even more serious illicit conduct."

The men's defence counsel tried unsuccessfully to have the video evidence struck out arguing that police had illegally obtained footage of the first assault after their mobile phones were impounded during the investigation into
the San Fermin rape.

READ MORE:  

 

 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also