The fourth section of the Pontevedra Provincial Court has acquitted the basketball coach accused of sexually abusing two minors and a third to whom he gave guitar lessons, arguing that, although it considers that the relationships occurred, it is not proven that they did not were consented. With respect to the events relating to one of the players on the basketball team in which he was the second coach, which occurred from the time she turned 14 until the beginning of 2016, the court highlights that the evidence allows it to conclude that the accused “knew perfectly “the age of the minor, with whom he had sexual relations. However, he explains that he cannot conclude that the defendant, who at that time was 18 years old, “knew that having sexual relations, fully consensual with her and lawful until July 1, 2015, would be criminal after that date as he was a minor.” 16 years old”. The Court believes that he did not know “the devalue of the action he committed with the minor and the inappropriateness of the conduct”, and argues that “all sexual relations were maintained voluntarily”, while ruling out “the existence in the minor of circumstance that determines any defect of consent due to “prevalence” due to “abuse of superiority.” “The parties’ own statements rule out this situation of superiority,” says the ruling, since, although he was the second coach of the basketball club in which the minor played, he “only took a couple of training sessions for the team in which he played. “he played the minor and two games,” the magistrates highlight in the ruling, in which they point out that “no reference is even made by the complainant about him making use of such status as a coach.” The ruling emphasizes that it is the victim “who tries to obtain and obtains the accused’s telephone number and who decides to establish communication with him, congratulating him on his birthday and arranging subsequent appointments, and who decides to end the relationship after meeting a boy he liked.” ANOTHER COMPLAINTANT Regarding the other complainant, born in 1997, the Chamber indicates that, from March 2013 to May 2016, “she maintained a relationship with the accused, and during the course of the relationship, in which there was periods of breakups, they had sexual relations that were not forced or without their consent. The minor explained at the trial, according to the ruling, that she began a relationship with the accused, who arrived at the basketball club in 2012 and with whom she coincided in training, at the end of 2013, and that the accused then did not He was a coach. She, as stated in the sentence, was 16 years old, and he was 18. The Court explains that, in application of the in dubio pro reo principle, it must issue an acquittal sentence, since it understands that “the reality of the non-consensual relations” has not been proven. “and indicates that there is also no evidence to prove that the accused “was in a position of superiority with respect to the victim, of similar age and with similar concerns and similar physical appearance.” The Court also affirms in the resolution that it has not been proven that the accused, on an unspecified date in 2016, on two occasions and in the course of guitar lessons, “had touched a minor’s back to the buttocks,” which was 13 years old.
2024-04-05 12:38:43
#basketball #coach #accused #sexual #assault #acquitted #estimating #relations #consensual
