The First Branch of the Provincial Court of Castellón has sentenced a young man to ten and a half years in prison for kidnapping, brutally assaulting and robbing a man, events he broadcast live on the social network Instagram. The events took place on December 19, 2020 in the town of Benicarló, which was also attended by two minors who were already on trial and convicted.
According to the verdict, the convicted man, 18, and two minors approached the 31-year-old victim at around 11 p.m. at the door of his home in Benicarló on the pretext of asking him for a cigarette. Next, they sneaked into the house, taped him to a chair, and searched the house until they found a bank account. They then started threatening him so that he would accompany them to an ATM to withdraw money. Faced with the victim’s resistance, they used the mechanical arm of an industrial iron mixer, a wrench, a metal pipe, and several wooden sticks to beat his entire body, particularly his head, limbs, and back. This situation continued for much of the morning.
The attackers disseminated their actions through an Instagram profile and the images were viewed by other youths on the same social network, who alerted the security forces. The Guardia Civil launched an operation that ended around 4pm the following afternoon, December 20, after locating the house where the events took place. The officers arrested the three suspects as they left the house to withdraw money from a bank’s ATM using the victim’s card that was left in the house.
The Provincial Court of Castellón has sentenced the accused to four years in prison for a crime of unlawful imprisonment and three and a half years in prison for a crime of assault, since the victim was hospitalized for four days, leaving multiple scars on his face as a result of the beatings received. In addition, the judges imposed an additional prison sentence of two and a half years for the crime of robbery with violence and a fine for the damage caused to the victim’s home for criminal damage. Finally, they also sentenced him to six months in prison for a crime against moral integrity arising from the rebroadcast of the violent treatment of the victim on the Internet. The court does not decide on possible compensation, since the injured party has reserved to civil jurisdiction the actions that he can exercise as a result of these events. The judgment is not final and can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the Valencian Community.
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