Cartagena’s Criminal Court has sentenced a Torre Pacheco’s resident to a year and nine months in jail, having found him guilty of the continued mistreatment of his wife and children over a period of several years.
The couple had been married for 14 years, although their daughter was the result of an earlier relationship by the woman who said that she lived in a state of permanent terror, to the point that both she and her daughter slept with an axe and a knife under their pillows.
She added that his violence, continuous threats and punches were part of their daily life although he too had also denounced his wife.
In 2014 he reported her to the police after she stabbed him in the throat with a knife, which required medical attention at a local hospital, as he tried to strangle her. The judge dismissed the charge saying that he considered the action as legitimate defence.
As well as the occasion that he threw a knife at the mother and daughter there were times when he punched the table, protesting because he did not like the food, and he even smashed a door. He also punched his wife in the stomach, threw himself on top of her and began to strangle her which was when she withdrew the knife from under her pillow and stabbed him in the neck.
Following the stabbing he was admitted to hospital where he required surgery to close the wound. However the judge considered that she acted in self-defence and acquitted her of any responsibility.
The Court said that they had allowed the accused to reduce his sentence in exchange for a full confession of the offenses, so that he has now been given one year and nine months imprisonment for habitual mistreatment of his wife and three years of ill-treatment s the two minor children. A fixed fine of 3,000 euros will be also be replaced by five months of community work and a course on gender equality.
The accused has also been made to move at least half a kilometre away from his ex-wife and the children.
