Prosecutors in Manresa 'Wolf Pack' trial upgrade charges from sexual assault to rape after outcry

Prosecutors in the latest Spanish gang rape trial have upgraded the charges against six men from sexual assault to rape after an outcry from women's rights protesters.

Activists sharply criticised what they described as lenient charges during the trial of seven men who stand accused of attacking a 14-year-old girl in Manresa, near Barcelona, in 2016.

Six of the men will have the charges upgraded from sexual assault to rape, while the seventh is accused of failing to prevent a crime after allegedly watching the rapes while masturbating.

Spain’s public prosecution service announced on Monday that it was demanding sentences of at least 14 years in prison for the six men it accuses of using intimidation to force their victim to have sex with them.

The case has strong echoes of the notorious ‘Wolf Pack’ gang rape in Pamplona, in which five men were twice acquitted of rape before Spain’s Supreme Court overruled lower courts.

The prosecutors in the Manresa case had said they would consider testimony given by the victim and a key witness in July before making a final decision on their official accusation when the trial resumed after a summer recess.

The seven men are on trial for the alleged gang rape of the girl in an abandoned factory in 2016.

She told the court that she had gone to the scene of the alleged crime with one of the men, who then invited his friends to take turns to rape her.

A witness said that the men brandished a gun and threatened to throw the girl in a river after they had finished abusing her.

Prosecutor Elena Contreras said on Monday that the men had acted like a criminal gang and had intimidated a lightly built and young victim, whose “understanding of events, willpower and capacity to react were clouded by the effects of drugs”.

Stating that the girl was afraid before, during and after the alleged attacks, Ms Contreras said it was not reasonable to ask victims to be seen as heroines.

“We must put the spotlight on the accused [who] seemed happy to trample her body in pursuit of amusement,” she added.

The socialist government is looking into reforming Spain’s rape laws to create one offence of non-consensual sex with no need to demonstrate physical force or intimidation.  

Spain’s public prosecution service revealed last week that sexual offences had risen by 23 per cent in 2018 to just under 19,000.