The Third Section of the Provincial Court of Murcia has upheld the fine penalty for two women who got into a brutal brawl over a man in Cartagena.
The event happened in May of 2022. The 64-year-old man, who used to be a police officer in the area, stood in front of his ex-wife, 59, and his current girlfriend, 54, as they hurled themselves to the ground, drove their nails into each other, and bit and scratched each other’s faces on a street in the middle of the port city.
A criminal court in the city also sentenced the man to 31 days of community service. However, Judge Juan del Olmo wrote the decision that he was not guilty of participating in the fight.
The court indicated above found the ex-partner guilty of a minor assault and sentenced him to a 30-day fine of 6 euros per day. In addition, the girlfriend was found guilty of a minor assault and given a six-euro daily fine for a month. The Provincial Court agreed with these punishments.
The court’s statement of facts says that the current couple ran into the man’s ex-wife on a public roadway. The women got into a fight, and they “grabbed each other, and both fell to the ground.” One woman grabbed the other by the hair, dug her nails into her scalp, and bit her arm. The other woman scratched her companion on the right side of her neck and the right submandibular area.
The Court further said, “It has not been properly proven that the man grabbed his ex and threw her to the ground, nor that he then hit her with his hands.”
“Chula” and “puta”
The ex-husband added in his statement that it all started when her current partner called her a “whore” and accused her of cheating on him. She also indicated that she had reported the accused for abuse before but always took back her accusation. She said she pulled her ex-husband’s girlfriend’s hair and bit her arm.
The girlfriend said in court that her ex had been “harassing” her and that she had already told the police about it, but “they ignored her.” She says that her ex insulted her and threw her to the ground. She also says that her boyfriend was “blocked.”
“It crashed”
The man said he is a retired local police officer and gets a pension of 2,000 euros. He said that his ex-wife wanted to “take it away from him.” He stressed that he didn’t call the police after the incident between the two women because, as his girlfriend maintains, he was blocked.
The parties’ statements must be examined closely because the accused has a strong emotional bond with one woman and a very bad relationship with the other. “This means that neither side can give an unbiased account of what happened, making it even harder to establish the facts, except for the points the accused agree on and the injury reports that show there was mutual aggression,” the court says.
In this case, the Court says, “In this situation, given the weakness of the evidence revealed, a rational doubt arises in the Court regarding the real and effective involvement of the man in the facts being tried, which, in application of the principle in dubio pro reo, must lead to an acquittal in relation to the same.” This is why the Court overturns the decision of Criminal Court No. 2 of Cartagena and lets the man go free.
Author: Derek Appleton
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