SECOND FLARE-UP IN SANTA POLA

Obligatory face mask use in all public situations ‘under consideration’

TWO small outbreaks of coronavirus have now been reported in Santa Pola.

The first – which came to light on Monday – is within the same family and four of them have tested positive.

According to the town hall, all the people they have been in contact with have been traced and are in quarantine, ‘which means this flare-up is under control’.

The second outbreak in the town was reported on Wednesday. The regional health department stated that four people have been infected in a ‘workplace environment’.

Contacts of the patients are now being traced. The flare-ups are not believed to be linked.

Mayoress Loreto Serrano said she was worried people are not taking the necessary precautions, noting that they ‘have to wear face masks and wash their hands’.

On Wednesday Valencia president Ximo Puig said his government would take the decision ‘in the coming days’ on more widespread obligatory use of face masks.

THREE young men have been sentenced to jail for beating up an acquaintance of theirs in Alcoy after the victim stood up for a disabled elderly gentleman they were tormenting.

Aquilino, 24; Carmelo, 33, and Eugenio, 23, all denied attacking Luciano and claimed that when he appeared on the scene, he was 'already covered in blood with a tooth missing'.

Luciano said he saw the three men – then aged 20, 29 and 19 – humiliating Efrain, a local homeless man they called 'whitehair', taking the wheel off his bike to wind him up and then mimicking him when he burst into tears.

He reportedly intervened, telling the youths – whom, he said, were in the company of other young men he did not know – to back off and leave Efrain alone.

Luciano said Eugenio told him, “What you want is a smack in the face,” which Aquilino duly provided before all three started punching and kicking him whilst he was on the ground.

He suffered a severe cut to his upper lip, a broken palate, scraped knees, hands and arms, severe bruising to his ribs, kneecaps, and ankle, and lost a tooth – injuries which took up to three weeks to heal and left him off work for a week.

His assailants have been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay him €9,900 in compensation, a large part of which is the cost of dental surgery, according to Alicante provincial court.

Carmelo and Eugenio admitted they had been 'hassling' Efrain, because he 'always pestered them for alcohol and cigarettes and was annoying', but denied violence.

Aquilino claimed he had seen a heated discussion between the pair and Luciano, but had left the scene immediately without knowing the outcome.

The victim, was beaten up after recriminating the other three for tormenting and humiliating a disabled man

A fourth man, David, now 29, was acquitted after his alibi was held to be sound and Luciano's identification of him vague.

Efrain, speaking as witness, said he did not remember anything.