Man sent to prison over gender abuse in Almeria

A MAN has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for insulting and humiliating his ex-wife over eight years.

A criminal court in Almeria has considered it proved that the 60-year-old subjected his wife to physical and mental abuse even after they were divorced.

He is now banned from coming within 500 metres of her in three years and must compensate her with €3,000.

On one occasion he broke her nose, frequently pulled her hair and had pushed her down the stairs when she was pregnant. When she once attempted to report him, he broke down the door to the house and wrecked the inside.

She finally reported him in 2009 but said she failed to do so before because she didn’t know how to get out of the situation for fear of “what people would think” because her previous relationship had also ended, and she thought that if she left him he would never forgive her.

His behaviour in public never led anyone to suspect what he was like to her at home, but even after they divorced he would go to her house unannounced, take their daughter out of school and follow them to the beach.

Thirty-five towns in Almeria, Granada, Jaen and Malaga have signed an agreement by which their local police forces had a system to follow-up cases of gender violence. The Almeria towns are Garrucha, Huercal Overa, Mojacar, Pulpi and Vicar.

The system registers information by computer and provides resources from all institutions, including police, prosecutors, judges, prisons, and social services, to help the victims and already has 30,000 users in 72 towns in Spain, with 1,161 police officers trained to work with the system to prevent gender violence.