“THIS CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN”

LARGE crowds gathered in front of Palma's town hall and the government's Consolat del Mar headquarters at midday yesterday to join councillors and politicians in a minute's silence in memory of Pilar Crevillent shot dead by her ex-lover on New Year's Day and to condemn domestic violence. Deputy Balearic President Rosa Estarás, who attended Pilar Crevillent's funeral on Sunday, led the solemn act at the Consolat del Mar and after stressed to reporters the need for a much greater level of education about sexual equality, “domestic violence is characteristic of a society in which men dominate women” she warned. “There's got to be an equal distribution of responsibilities and work, both in the home and the work place while women need to be given the necessary institutional and legal tools to be able to report domestic violence and receive the necessary support.” She said that as far as her department and the Womens's Institute are concerned, fighting domestic violence is their maximum priority. “We are working on expanding the social resources available for victims and above all, working with the legal system and the police to stamp out domestic violence. “We're also encouraging greater education in schools and at home so that more people are talking about sexual equality and what it means,” the deputy president said. The largest gathering was outside city hall which was presided over by the Mayor Catalina Cirer and attended by many of the city councillors and members of the church. Cirer said that the shooting dead of Crevillent “has given all women and society in general a bad start to the year. “We've all got a duty to do everything possible to make sure a crime like this never happens again,” Cirer said.
The Mayor called on all the women currently suffering from domestic violence to come forward and report their aggressors to the police “but make sure once you've made the first step and reported the crimes you don't take a step back and lift the charges,” Cirer added. The former president of the Balearics, Francesc Antich, said the time has come for new laws on domestic violence while the leader of the United Left party, Eberhard Grosske, said that last Thursday's tragedy “says something quite serious about the society we live in, one which is increasingly marked by violence and bloodshed.”