Community enraged by gang-rape attack
Large protest in Callosa d'En Sarrià where four young men allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted at 19-year-old woman on New Year's Eve
THREE hundred people turned out this Monday in Callosa d'En Sarrià's main square to protest against gender violence following the gang rape of a 19year-old girl in the early hours of January 1.
Local councillors and mayor Juan Saval were present as well as officials from neighbouring towns, representatives from the provincial government, local associations against gender violence and pupils from local schools.
Together they stood united while the mayor read a manifest against gender violence, pledging to do their best to end it (see front page photo).
The young woman was attacked by four men aged between 19 and 24. Although three of them have Spanish nationality, both the attackers' and victim's families are from Ecuador. Their hard-working parents are said to be well known and liked in the town.
Two of the men knew their victim as they met up with her on New Year's Eve in Benidorm. At around 05.00 they decided to go to a house belonging a friend of her mother to have a few drinks.
Once they were there, after being plied with more alcohol, the sexual assault began. The young woman remembers nothing about this, but the owner of the house did see what was about to happen and she threw them all out including the victim.
This is when the four-man gang decided to go back to one of their member's home in Callosa d'En Sarrià, taking the young woman with them, who by this time could hardly hold herself up.
It was here in the basement of this property that the sexual assault took place.
It was the mother of one of the abusers, who hearing noise, went down to see what has happening, and saw the gang assaulting the woman.
She ran back upstairs, waking her daughter who immediately called the local Guardia Civil.
Officers arrived so rapidly, that they caught the three of the gang still assaulting her.
The three were immediately arrested, while a fourth man was detained later on during the day.
The young woman was taken to hospital for medical treatment as she was in pain.
Her lawyer told a TV crew that her initial blood test results showed she had cocaine and marijuana, in her blood. And her lawyer suspects she could have been given the date rape drug ‘burundunga’ (scopolamine), as she says she remembers nothing about the whole night. He also regarded the person who threw her out earlier that night together with her abusers, as 'very irresponsible indeed'.
The victim later declared that she remembers being pinned face down on the floor while her clothes were torn off her body, while one of them pressed her head to the ground and others scrambled on her back.
On reviewing the gang members' smartphones, officers found they had videoed part of the assault, and the victim was filmed clearly fighting them off.
One of those arrested, a 22year-old has a police record for gender violence and sexually abusing a minor, and investigations led to another woman who was sexually assaulted last October and who has now reported him to the authorities.
Officers suspect the gang may have assaulted more women, who are now starting to come forward, now that the gang, who called themselves "Los Reyes de la Noche", (The Kings of the Night), are safely in custody.
The four arrested face crimes of sexual aggression, two counts of sexual abuse and another crime against privacy.