Agents of the local police of O Porriño, this Thursday in front of the house where a neighbor kidnapped a womanÓSCAR CORRAL
Nine police officers broke down the door of one floor of the Paseo Marítimo building in the town of O Porriño in Pontevedra, where 26-year-old fugitive Manuel Fernández, El Rami, spent six days kidnapping his ex-girlfriend. The notes that the girl threw out the window asking for help while her captor slept triggered a complicated operation to be carried out at dawn to free the girl and arrest this criminal, who has received up to 11 requests for detention avoided because of various convictions. His search had intensified 20 days earlier when he was denounced by a minor he had also kidnapped at a neighboring town hall, but she managed to escape.
On July 25th (official holiday in Galicia commemorating the patron saint Santiago Apóstol) around 6am a neighbor was on her way to work after her usual walk. He was crossing Calle de Ramiranes in the heart of the city center when he saw two pieces of paper fly over the facade of a building. He stopped to pick her up and, raising his head, saw from the window of one of the first floors a girl persistently waving her arms, but the woman skeptically walked on.
When she got to work, she unfolded the two folded papers and read: “My name is (…) I have been kidnapped since Tuesday by my ex-partner in this house, in the apartment of (…). I fear for my life, I don’t know how to get out of here. Help me, call the Guardia Civil. That they are careful when he sees the police, he kills me. It is no joke. Many Thanks.”
In the other handwritten note, the woman wrote: “My name is (…) I have been kidnapped in this building since Tuesday. Call the police. It is no joke. Don’t make any noise, Manuel is beside himself. There’s no key in the door.”
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, commented on the incident with her colleagues, who encouraged her to call 112 if the girl’s life was in danger. “When the lady calls, she already warns that it could be a hoax because she didn’t believe what she saw and read,” says chief inspector of the local police Daniel Rodríguez. “When they gave us the notification, it was very early and at that moment the night watch checkpoint coincided with the early shift agents who were already entering, so we could expect seven troops to prepare the operation,” he recalled itself.
It was established that the abducted girl’s parents had filed a disappearance report in Vigo, where they lived. With the intervention of two Civil Guard agents, the operation was carried out around the building indicated in the handwritten notes. During a first street check to locate the apartment that belonged to the kidnapper’s sister, a third letter was found on the hood of a parked car: “My name is (…) I’ve been in this building against my will since Tuesday, I’m afraid me for my life He’s very upset, beside himself. Call the Guardia Civil, it’s the apartment of (…). It is no joke. That you’re careful when you see the police, they kill me.”
The attack was carried out with all due care as the girl’s life was in danger. The agents rang the bell but there was no answer so they decided to break down the door. “We found the alleged kidnapper asleep in bed and without giving him time to react, we handcuffed him. When he saw us, he didn’t resist, although he didn’t show an iota of remorse either, and he waited without flinching for his rights to be read to him,” stresses the inspector.
“The girl sat in a corner of the room, frightened, having an apparent anxiety crisis, and explained that she had been locked in the house since July 19. He had various bruises on his face and body, so he was quickly taken by ambulance to the Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital in Vigo, always accompanied by an agent,” says the chief inspector. It was there that sexual assault protocol was instituted and she was recognized by a coroner.
Manuel Fernández, a habitual narcotics user, had been on the run from police for a year and a half with an arrest warrant. The eldest of three brothers, sons of a van who had left a history with the justice system, since childhood lived with his family on Ramiranes Street, where the kidnapping took place, which is why he was nicknamed El Rami, starting very young, around a long conviction for robbery and robbery, for which he has been charged by several provincial courts. “When he was 18 years old, he was already showing ways,” says the chief of police, “and it’s obvious that during those year and a half as a refugee someone had to support him logistically in order to remain hidden from the police for so long in a small City where everyone knows each other,” emphasizes Rodriguez.
The woman arrested was being investigated for abducting a minor in the neighboring municipality of Ponteareas and holding her at a farm owned by El Rami’s relatives just two weeks earlier, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. The victim managed to break the bonds and escape. He then denounced the fugitive for kidnapping and rape, facts being investigated by the Vigo Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office. The day after his arrest, the head of the O Porriño Court of Inquiry No. 3 ordered Manuel Fernández’s detention on alleged crimes of unlawful detention and sexually assaulting the woman. The judge has withdrawn from the case in favor of the courts of Vigo, where the disappearance complaint was filed.
According to police investigations, the alleged kidnapper and the victim had been in a relationship for some time. As he owed her an amount of money, around 400 euros, according to the girl, he called her to go to her sister’s apartment on the pretext of returning it to her. But the woman did not return home and was detained there.
The kidnapper threatened his victim to cut his throat if she ran away, the girl said. “He knew exactly what he was facing, a 15-20 year sentence for unlawful imprisonment and sexual assault, but he also knew that if he carried out his threats, the sentence would mean five years in prison,” the inspector says.
While awaiting the forensic report, the researchers agree that Manuel Fernández is profiling a psychopath. “He has a mental health problem, he feels no empathy for the suffering of others, nor remorse for his repeated criminal acts,” they explain after analyzing the prisoner’s story.
The 016 phone number supports victims of gender-based violence 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The number will not appear on the phone bill, but the call must be cleared from the device.