No sentence, however severe, would ever make a mother forget the last telephone call she had with her daughter, 27-year-old healthcare worker Arancha ... Corcero, on 23 October 2023 - seconds before she was set upon and killed by a pack of seven dogs while running along a rural lane.
At the very least, a ruling by the Zamora Provincial Court upholding the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence imposed on the dogs' owner, shepherd Pedro Gago Rodríguez, will help her turn the page on a chapter that will always remain open in her memory.
Following the trial held on 28 May in Zamora, Gago Rodríguez was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment. The sentence was lower than the four years sought by the family's solicitor due to the judge applying a mitigating factor for undue delays. However, it exceeded the two years sought by the Crown Prosecution Service and rejected the acquittal - or alternative charge of manslaughter through slight negligence with a two-month fine - requested by the defense.
Both parties appealed to the Zamora Provincial Court, which has now dismissed all appeals and fully upheld the two-and-a-half-year sentence, of which Gago Rodríguez is expected to serve around 15 months.
In addition, the two and a half weeks he previously spent in pre-trial detention following a ruling by the Court of First Instance on 16 February 2024 must be deducted. That temporary detention was ordered due to the seriousness of the offence, the existence of evidence of criminal liability, the risk of absconding, the risk of reoffending, and a history of administrative offences for allowing dangerous dogs to run loose, before provisional release without bail was granted on 5 March 2024.
Lawyer welcomes first prison term for a shepherd allowing dogs to run loose in Spain
Under the confirmed ruling, Gago Rodríguez is also required to pay 250,000 euros in civil liability compensation to Corcero's family.
Miguel Ángel Martín Anero, the lawyer representing the victim's family, stated that the judicial delays were caused by "the hold-ups" in the only Criminal Court in Zamora. He emphasised that the judgment acknowledges the sentence as fair and rejects the defense's arguments "due to the dangerous situation he had been creating with those animals for years, showing utter contempt for people."
Despite falling short of the four-year maximum requested, the lawyer expressed extreme satisfaction - describing himself as "even happy" - with the final judgment, pointing out that this marks the first time in Spain that a shepherd has been handed an active prison sentence for allowing his dogs to run loose.
He acknowledged, however, that a similar prosecution remains unlikely for most dog owners: "because no one keeps their animals the way this man did: it is true that they are let loose to look after livestock, but one must be careful and take precautions; one cannot act with the utter disregard that this man showed."