A Moroccan national has been sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor during his employment as an educator at a juvenile center.
The Provincial Court of Murcia found that the 31-year-old man picked up the girl in his car and drove her to a remote field, where they had sexual intercourse. Although the court acknowledged that the act may have appeared consensual, it emphasized that under Spanish law, a person under 16 cannot legally consent to sex, making the act a criminal offense.
In other legal jurisdictions, the offense is known as statutory rape, although it is not referred to by that exact term in Spanish law.
As reported by La Opinión de Murcia, the incident occurred in March 2021 but was only resolved this year with a final court ruling. After returning to her residential facility, the victim confided in a classmate, who reported the incident to other educators. The man was immediately transferred from his role the following day.
In addition to his prison sentence, the man will serve five years of supervised probation after his release. He is prohibited from approaching the victim for six years and banned from working in any capacity involving regular contact with minors for 11 years.
He is not understood to be subject to deportation proceedings.
The convicted man had worked at the juvenile facility as both an educator and a translator. He denied the charges, claiming he was never alone with the girl and suggesting there was always a security guard nearby. He further alleged that the girl and another minor had harassed him, made inappropriate remarks, and touched him. According to his testimony, when he punished them, they responded with threats: “Son of a bitch, we are going to make you suffer for your whole life.”
He also claimed that the girl later told him, “If you don’t do anything to me, I’m going to fuck up your life.”
However, the court sided with the victim’s account. She testified that she met the man during the Covid-19 lockdown while living in the center. After she moved to a sheltered apartment, they exchanged phone numbers and began speaking on WhatsApp. She said they agreed to meet in person, and the man picked her up from Murcia’s bus station.
Before driving to a field, he reportedly asked her to “swear to her mother” that she would not report what they were about to do. In the field, the victim said, they had full sexual intercourse.
The girl also explained that when she first told a friend about the encounter, she might have downplayed its seriousness because she thought she was in love. Over time, she realized she had been manipulated and pressured, a realization that became clear when she turned 17 and began dealing with the psychological consequences.
In its judgment, the court noted the coercive nature of the relationship and the power imbalance between the adult and the minor, noting how the defendant had “transmitted frankness and conviction” in his dealings with the child.
Data from the Spanish interior ministry reported by La Gaceta in February revealed that over 5,400 Moroccans are currently incarcerated in Spain, accounting for 29.5 percent of the foreign prison population.
Moroccans are by far the largest group of foreign inmates in Spanish prisons.
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