Gender-related crime rate in Almeria.

ALMERIA has the third highest rate of gender-related crimes so far this year in Spain, beaten only by Madrid and Barcelona.

So far, three women have died at the hands of their partners or former partners in the first seven months of the year in the province.

The first was a 46-year-old woman who was allegedly killed by her common law partner in Roquetas de Mar in February. Her son was also killed. The murderer confessed at a police station in Barcelona. In May, a woman was stabbed 20 times by her husband in El Zapillo district of Almeria. The two had allegedly argued over their daughter’s Holy Communion. The killer sat on a bench and waited to be arrested. 

The third was in Fines, where Rosa Galera disappeared last month and was found dead after several days. Her husband confessed to the crime. So far this year, in the whole of Spain, 32 women have died at the hands of their partners, most of them had not reported them previously for abuse.

In 2010, 73 women were killed by their partners and five children died as a result of violence in the home last year.

The average age of last year’s victims was 41, and 74 per cent were killed in their own home. Six out of ten still maintained a relationship with their killers.

Sixty-two per cent of the victims were Spanish and 38 per cent foreign, although this reflects a high percentage of gender violence amongst the foreign population as only 11.47 per cent of women living in Spain is not Spanish. Of the twenty-two of the victims who had reported their attackers at some time, 36 per cent decided not to go ahead with the complaint, and 13 had restraining orders at the time of death.

In 18 per cent of the cases, the killer committed suicide after the crime, and 16 per cent attempted to do so. Twelve per cent handed themselves in to the police, 46 per cent were arrested shortly after the crime and eight per cent escaped.