Crime

Children being pressurised not to talk about girl assault case

Marcos García Montes (second right) explains the cases he is bringing against the education minister, the children involved in the assault and others. | Pilar Pellicer

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma22/10/2016 00:00

Marcos García Montes, the lawyer who has taken on the case involving the eight-year-old girl attacked in a school playground, said today that relatives of children at the school in question - Anselm Turmeda in Palma's Son Roca district - are complaining that their children are being pressurised into not talking about what happened.

The grandmother of one pupil, a friend of the girl who was attacked, has said that her granddaughter has been warned by the school that if she says anything, she'll not be allowed out into the playground for a year.

García Montes reiterated today that he intends to get the juvenile prosecution service to reopen the case because things have been done badly. Insisting that "no one is going to get off scot-free", he said again that he will be pursuing a charge of attempted murder or of causing serious injury against one of the pupils involved in the assault.

He will also be pressing claims of civil liability against the other pupils as well as lodging suits against the education minister, school director and others. He accuses the ministry and others of having acted "ex parte" in acting in their own interests and not in the interests of the aggrieved party.

The clinical diagnosis by Son Espases Hospital, García Montes revealed, was evidence of a brutal, violent fight and showed abrasions, bruises, grazes and damage to the abdomen and kidney. A further report added that pain had lasted for days afterwards.