A teenage girl's letter to her school tutor exposed five years of sexual abuse by a man who lived with her and her mother ... in Bilbao. The abuse began in 2018, when the girl was around ten, and continued until the summer of 2023, when the man left the family home.
Two years after the girl disclosed what had happened, the provincial court of Vizcaya has sentenced him to 12 years in prison and ordered him to pay her 60,000 euros in compensation.
The court found that the man, who was 48 when the abuse began, sexually abused the girl at the home they shared. He acted when her mother, who regarded him as "a member of the family", was either out at work or asleep. Initially, he subjected the child to sexual touching, but the abuse gradually escalated. Within the first few months, he had committed sexual assaults involving penetration, which became "habitual and recurrent".
The abuse continued until the summer of 2023, when the man, who had no relationship with the family beyond friendship or familiarity, left the property. The girl's mother had thrown him out and even called the police because of his verbal abuse and the problems he caused in the household. At the time, she had no idea what he had been doing to her daughter.
"I'm sorry for being such a bad student this year. From the age of ten until August of last year, I had a flatmate who did bad things to me and this year, now that I've learned it wasn't right, it's all starting to affect me a lot. Please don't tell my mother anything. It's very difficult for me to talk about this and I don't want to hurt her anymore. Thank you for being my tutor," the note the girl gave to her teacher at the end of the school year said.
By then, the girl's psychologist, who had been treating her following her parents' separation several years earlier, suspected that her suicidal thoughts and self-harming, which began when she was 14, stemmed from something more serious than the divorce. The psychologist was concerned by the "level of psychological suffering" the girl was experiencing. Her mother also sensed that something was wrong, but did not know what lay behind it.
Around that age, the girl began to feel "disgust and revulsion" at what was happening and became afraid of being at home. She tried to stay out or spend time with friends until her mother returned from work. She had begun to "fully understand" the seriousness of the abuse, but even after disclosing it, she needed months of therapy before she could identify what she had experienced as abuse.
Until then, she had believed she was partly responsible for what was happening. According to her therapist, she displayed characteristics consistent with protecting the adult and forming a relationship of emotional dependence similar to what is known as Stockholm syndrome.
Suicide Prevention Protocol
The letter to her teacher proved decisive in bringing the abuse to light. The school activated its suicide prevention protocol, and the psychologist contacted the girl’s mother to tell her what the letter said. The girl then told her mother what had happened, and they reported the abuse to the police.
The judges at the provincial court praised the strength and credibility of the girl's testimony.
The ruling stresses that the man exploited the close living arrangements, the family's precarious financial circumstances and the girl's extreme vulnerability to maintain sexual control over her for years.
In addition to the 12-year prison sentence and 60,000 euros in compensation, the court has imposed further restrictions. The man must stay at least 500 metres away from the victim and must not contact her for 20 years. He is also banned from working with minors for 17 years.
After serving his prison sentence, he will remain under supervised release for a further ten years and must attend sex education courses.