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Constitutional Court condemns Torrevieja Council for harassing a police officer

Torrevieja Local Police

After reporting irregularities that had occurred “systematically” within the force, a former Torrevieja Local Police officer was subjected to “constant harassment” from his superiors. The First Chamber of the Constitutional Court has upheld the award of nearly €100,000. The ruling, which was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (Official State Gazette)BOE)) on Friday, deems the “harassing conduct” experienced by officer Antonio RB, a career civil servant who held the status of protected victim of the Valencian Anti-Fraud Agency, to be “judicially proven.” It also emphasises that the Torrevieja City Council “actively participated, institutionally and within its scope of powers, in some of the harassment acts that have been judicially proven.”

The police officer’s claim for financial liability for workplace harassment was upheld by the Elche Administrative Litigation Court No. 1 in 2018. The initial judgement was overturned by the Second Section of the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJ-CV) after an appeal, which ruled out the existence of workplace harassment. The officer’s appeal against the TSJ-CV ruling was subsequently dismissed by the Administrative Litigation Division of the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court ultimately upheld the initial judgement, declaring it final, after the officer filed an appeal for constitutional protection.

The officer’s ordeal commenced in 2010, when the Torrevieja Local Police, which had been recently appointed under the Popular Party mayor Pedro Hernández Mateo, issued a warning regarding the lack of control over the cash collected in fines and the “systematic” inspections of specific entertainment venues. This was in contrast to the inaction in other establishments, despite unfavourable reports.

The incident was reported by him and two other police officers three years later, and an inspector and two officers were subsequently investigated. The complaint resulted in harassment, including the following: the removal of his weapon and documents from his gun rack and locker, the alteration of his schedules without prior notification and the assignment of new ones without the required rest period, and the denial of vacation time.

Manuel Antonio LV, one of the police commanders who co-defended the city council, published a “pamphlet” in which he referred to the officer as a “cephalopod” and a “slimy, disgusting animal” and disclosed private information on a notice board that was “visible to all personnel.” In the interim, the Alicante Traffic Department received a letter from the co-defendant Torrevieja Local Police Chief, Vicente GS, in which he suggested that the officer may have misplaced his driving licence.

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He encountered a “rare atmosphere towards him” at his new post, the Alguazas Town Hall in the Region of Murcia, in 2016. He discovered that his medical records had been sent from Torrevieja and “reported as problematic” after consulting with a colleague. ” Subsequently, he was relocated to Lorca, “where he is at ease.”

Vicente GS and Manuel Antonio LV, the latter has now retired, were previously deemed to be “instigators of workplace harassment” in two “very similar” proceedings. As a result, the Vega Baja council was required to provide compensation to two other officers in the amount of 71,950 euros.

The Torrevieja City Council was aware of, permitted, and condoned the “true and certain” workplace and psychological harassment that the inspector and the superintendent of the Local Police endured for several years. The ruling asserts that both officers were “instigators of other harassment” of Local Police officers on multiple occasions.

The trial judge underscored that the officer’s account was not refuted by any witnesses or expert reports provided by Torrevieja City Council. Conversely, the victim’s testimony concerning the infringement of her moral integrity, personal dignity, and fundamental rights was “conclusive.”

The “hostile environment” and “psychological violence”


The Constitutional Court maintains the initial ruling and emphasises that “the concept of workplace harassment can encompass situations or behaviours of various kinds, whether specific or repeated over time, but they all have in common (…) the degrading nature of working conditions or the hostility they entail, and which have the purpose or result of attacking or endangering the employee’s personal integrity.”

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The court determines that the alleged constitutional violation is “clearly indicative,” indicating a “reasonable suspicion” that the police officer’s treatment was workplace harassment that “significantly harmed his physical and moral integrity.”

“He was deliberately and repeatedly humiliated with the intention of violating his dignity, resulting in a hostile and psychologically violent environment that not only prompted him to demand a change of workplace but was also exacerbated by the city council’s repeated refusal to grant him this, ultimately having a significant impact on his physical and mental health,” the ruling states.

The Constitutional Court also gives “special emphasis” to the fact that the Torrevieja City Council “not only consciously remained indifferent to the hostile conduct” towards the police officer, in a “repeatedly passive position” maintained “for years,” but also “actively participated, institutionally and within its scope of powers, in some of the acts of harassment that appear to have been judicially proven.”


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One killed in accident near the AP-7 exit at Ondara

Denia Lorry Crash

The firefighters at the Dénia station worked a long night, not only extracting the deceased driver but also preventing the fire from spreading to the two colliding vehicles.
The images depict how the smaller vehicle, whose occupant was killed instantaneously, was transformed into an unrecognisable mass of metal.

This morning was an extremely difficult and busy night for the Provincial Fire Consortium, particularly the firemen at the Dénia fire station. They were hard at work responding to the accident at the AP-7 exit in Ondara, on the bridge over the N-332, where a horrific collision occurred. As stated by this newspaper, a huge trailer crashed with a smaller crane vehicle, killing the driver instantaneously.

In addition, the two occupants of the larger truck were injured and transported to Dénia Hospital. Heavy traffic bottlenecks ensued.

Firefighters, who provided these photographs depicting how the smaller vehicle had been reduced to an unrecognisable pile of twisted metal, had to remove the deceased, stop diesel spills, keep both vehicles from catching fire, and clear the route.

Meanwhile, Guardia Civil and Local Police officials directed traffic coming from the highway, Dénia, and other nearby towns. The First Security Force’s traffic investigation department has launched an investigation to identify the cause of the collision, which saw the two vehicles collide nearly head on.

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Residents of San Miguel demand more public housing

House Construction

The San Miguel de Salinas Residents’ Association has filed an appeal against the final approval of the third revision to the SUS-A partial plan “Los Invernaderos.” This appeal comes after the group’s 21 objections were dismissed.

The alteration they oppose proposed increasing density and consolidating it in eight towers with ground floors and seven high-rise structures in the development’s proximity to the town centre, as well as situating social housing on the same land, they claim.

The number of dwellings in this partial plan has risen from 1,582 to 2,204 since its first approval. They protest that only 90 units are classified as public housing.

According to the association’s reasoning, the land earmarked for social housing should be 30% of the residential buildable area in the area, which equates to 48,886 m2. These 90 reserved homes total slightly over 11,000 m2.

According to the association’s statement, the legal department’s reaction is that this rule applies to “rural land that will be included in new development projects,” which is incorrect because the area is already heavily urbanised.

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Another criticism raised by this group is that social housing not be concentrated on the same plot, as this would be a “segregationist” decision with no integration.

They also point out that the sector is divided into two half by a promenade, with no infrastructure connecting the two regions of development, allowing people to move more freely.


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Increase in fighting at Orihuela Costa High School

High School

Fights at Playa Flamenca Secondary School or its vicinity are constantly recorded. “Everything is as bad as ever,” says one mother. The difference is that Pandora’s box was opened four months ago, following the murder of Cloe, 15, allegedly by her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend. Both young women attended the only secondary school in Orihuela Costa. She was in her fourth year of compulsory secondary education, and he was doing vocational training during the afternoon shift after dropping out of his first year of high school. Now, she says, there is a daily police presence, and parents are making complaints.

The films all follow a similar pattern: guys and girls fighting while being cheered on by the crowd. In many situations, the confrontations begin within the school and then spread to the street, or they are pre-planned and a “get-together” is organised to observe and record them in real time.

Expulsions of implicated students have occurred in recent days, but the prevalent perception is that no decisive action or measures to solve the situation are being implemented.

Local police sources confirm that they have escalated. Although cops have been working on this issue with the juvenile unit for over a year and have increased police presence, the same sources admit that it is a difficult problem to fix. Meanwhile, the centre’s management declined to comment.

After Cloe’s suspected killer sliced her throat in an alley in La Florida, the Parents’ Association stated that the school, which has roughly 1,000 kids, had been a true “breeding ground for crime” for years.

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They described it as a pressure cooker, with no lack of fights, assaults, harassment, abuse, alcohol-related comas, narcotics, truancy, and firearms. In fact, at the start of the school year, a 12-year-old girl was brutally beaten and hospitalised, prompting a meeting at the Coastal Emergency Centre between the IES and the two coastal schools, the councillors for Education, Coastal, and Citizen Security, the Local Police (with their gender-based violence and truancy units), and the Civil Guard.

It was also discovered that certain people near the school give out little amounts of narcotics for free in order to “hook” young people and subsequently “recruit” them to conduct criminal crimes such as stealing cell phones or other products and trafficking in substances. In this setting, and once inside the “network,” many of them are equipped with knives and switchblades for protection.

The imprisoned minor’s surroundings were tied to a group that committed petty crimes such as theft and squatting. He frequented “the Chinaman’s house,” along with other young people who went there to do drugs and party. This unfinished residential complex has become a hotspot of disturbances in recent years, as reported by neighbours whose properties are across the street or only a few steps away.

This is one of the terraced houses on Calle Nutria that has been abandoned for more than a decade, about 500 metres from where the Guardia Civil believes the young man burnt his clothes and the knife in a semi-ruined warehouse next to a water tank on Morral Street, very close to the alley where Cloe received a cut on her neck that killed her shortly after in Torrevieja Hospital.

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