(WOMENSENEWS)-The sentence of a rapist was reduced by Spain’s Supreme Court this week, the all-male panel ruling that the man who raped a mentally retarded girl was drunk at the time, The Associated Press reported.
The sentence of the 18-year-old rapist was reduced from 13 and a half years to eight years and those of his two co-defendants who pinned the girl down were reduced from 12 years and six years to two years each.
“Having ingested alcoholic beverages throughout the night, the three accused manifested an intellectual capacity that was slightly below average,” the Supreme Court ruled. “Taken together, these may be considered to have keenly affected their volitional faculties.”
“What is happening in our country is a monstrosity,” said Tina Alarcon of the Federation of Aid Associations for Sexually Abused Women. “Some of these judges exhibit a male chauvinism that is right out of the Middle Ages.”
Women’s groups said the ruling was the latest in a series of rulings in which the attacker’s drinking and the victim’s past were seen as mitigating circumstances.
