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The Supreme Court has reduced the sentence imposed on a man from twelve to six years in prison convicted of raping a woman who was drunk and drugged understanding that this was not a victim in a particularly vulnerable situation, because He defended himself and opposed the aggression.

The rape took place in October 2016, in a lot near the parking lot of a Valencian nightclub, and, in a first ruling, the Provincial Court of Valencia sentenced the man to six years in prison for sexual assault.

But later the Superior Court of Justice of the Community increased the sentence to twelve years by applying the aggravating circumstance of a situation of special vulnerability included in the Penal Code.

The girl, who was 18 years old, “was very affected by the alcohol and drugs she had ingested,”I was not aware of reality” and had “disturbed his intellectual and volitional faculties, to the point of not being able to determine his sexual behavior freely and with knowledge of the significance of the acts,” according to the Court.

But the Supreme Court remembers that, according to the doctrine of the high court, the aggravating factor of special vulnerability “is not in the lack or limitation of the consent of the offended person, but in the reduction or elimination of his or her self defense mechanism against sexual attack.

In this case, the magistrates highlight, “the victim from the first moment, when the accused grabbed her by the waist, was aware of what he intended and showed her opposition to his claimsboth orally, saying ‘enough, stop’, and through the actions he carried out, trying to resist, biting him, scratching him and hitting him in the mouth.

Although the proven facts indicate that the accused, knowing the state of the victim, decided to take advantage, the Supreme Court emphasizes that the alcohol and drugs that the young woman had taken “did not reduce or eliminate her possibility of self-defense.” against sexual attack.

The violence exercised by the accused “probably would have allowed him to perpetrate the attack in analogous circumstances even assuming that the victim’s volitional and intellectual capacities had not been affected,” so The Supreme Court concludes that the aggravating circumstance of especially vulnerability cannot be applied.

Thus, it upholds the appeal presented by the aggressor and leaves in force the ruling of the Provincial Court of Valencia, with the six years in prison.

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