The Court of Courts ofAndorra judge today a young man accused of a felony sexual assault of a minor and two criminal offenses for willful injury. The Prosecutor’s Office plans to ask for a penalty of 15 months in prisonwhile the defense has questioned the victim’s version and points to contradictions between the different statements.
The accused, who had 19 years when the events happened, he denied having sexually assaulted the minor. As he explained during the trial, on the night of the events, in August 2019four young people went to a flat in the Tarterwhere they consumed alcohol. He has assured that he was with another of the young women all the time and that he was never alone with the minor. He has also denied forcing her to touch her private parts, holding her hand or hitting her.
The young man explained that the minor stayed on the couch while he kissed the other girl, and denied that he went with her to the room or the area where there was a bed. Regarding an injury to the victim’s eye, he stated that the young woman told him that she had fallen when she was leaving the apartment and he has denied pushing her.
During the hearing, several conversations were also reviewed whatsapp which the accused maintained after the fact. In the messages, the young man insisted to the other girl that he had not done anything to the minor. At one point in the conversation, the accused writes that he has “a police friend from my side” and warns the young woman: “you don’t know who I am”. In another message, he says: “I can’t have any more problems, I just want to live my life”. This is because the accused had already been convicted of another crime of robbery with force higher than 6,000 euros.
The victim, who could not be located today, gave a written statement on February 2020when I had 17 years. According to the story included in the case, that night she was with her friend and the two defendants and they had consumed alcohol in the flat. The minor explained that she went to the toilet because she was not feeling well and that, subsequently, she entered a room where the accused would have taken her hand and put it on her genitals. She also claimed that he asked her to touch him and repeatedly put his hand on her genitals.
According to this version, the accused would have prevented her from getting out of bed and, when she tried to leave, he would have stood in front of the door. Finally, the two young women could have left the flat. The minor also assured that theaccused had pushed him and that he had hit his eye on a bunk. After the incident, he went to the emergency room with an inflamed eye.
The statement also states that the young woman explained the events to her grandmother and that, years later, she was still undergoing psychological treatment. The defense has remarked that it has not been able to interview the witness and has alleged the existence of contradictions between the different statements included in the case. The hearing now continues with the rest of the witness statements.
