The accused was held in prison for just over a year. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

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A 20-year-old Colombian man has been acquitted of the rape of a 13-year-old girl by a Palma court.

He was arrested in May last year and was in prison until the start of June this year. The Prosecutor's Office had called for a 40-year sentence. The defence maintained that sexual relations were consensual.

He met the girl on Instagram in February 2023. They went to an abandoned house near the football ground in Puerto Pollensa where they had sex. He then accompanied her home.

There were three more sexual encounters. These were either at his home or in the La Gola nature reserve. The last time they saw each other was in May 2023. He was arrested soon afterwards following a complaint to the Guardia Civil.

The court concluded that it had not been proven that there was violence or intimidation on any of the four occasions. The girl's version "lacked credibility". No witnesses called were present when the reported sexual assaults were committed. The "weakness" of her account was accentuated by detail of one episode that was "totally incompatible with non-consensual sexual assault".

The Colombian man has an IQ 58 per cent below average. This places his mental age at around ten or eleven. The court's ruling states: "Even though the defendant was 19 years old, he was not a person far removed in maturity from the complainant."