Spanish sex offenders’ sentences cut
MADRID — Spain’s magistrate associations and main opposition party called Thursday for the country’s equality minister to resign after she accused judges of “machismo” for reducing prison sentences under a new sexual aggression law that was never intended to have that effect.
The “sexual liberty” law made sexual consent, or a lack of it, a key determinant in assault cases and revised the range of potential minimum and maximum prison terms, inadvertently making it possible for some convicted individuals to have their sentences reduced on appeal.
The legislation, popularly known as the “Only yes means yes” law, came into force last month. Now, one of Equality Minister Irene Montero’s signature projects is threatening to prove politically damaging.
Revelations this week of the reduced sentences in at least 15 cases outraged the minister and supporters of the law, who argued that Spain’s judges needed more training to overcome ingrained gender biases.
In one case, a Madrid court recently lowered the sentence of a man convicted of sexually abusing his 13-year-old stepdaughter from eight to six years. In another, a court in southern Granada took two years off a 13-year sentence given to a man who threatened his ex-wife with a knife and raped her.