Child protection is key to legal fight against sexual violence in Spain

The murder and trial were closely followed in Spain, where it was described as a case of “vicarious violence” in which a third party, in most cases a child, caused the most pain to the partner. Or a former partner.

The 49-year-old father told a Valencia court last month that Jordi – who was online with his mother at the time of the attack – was the person his ex-wife “loved most in the world”.

The term violence by proxy first surfaced in 2021 following a similar case in the Canary Islands in which a father killed his daughters, aged 1 and 6.

At the time, their mother described it as “the most heinous act a person could commit”, but expressed hope that their deaths would not be in vain, saying: “We now know the meaning of vicarious violence.” He expressed his gratitude.

Sonia Vaccaro, the Argentine therapist who first coined the term, said such violence often occurs after a woman breaks up with her partner.

“This is a form of violence that abusers perpetrate against women when they are no longer able to see them, and usually happens when women are divorced or separated,” she told AFP .

“He has to use an intermediary to hurt her.”

Vicarious violence can be extreme, including killing a child, but it can also be expressed in more mundane, “everyday” actions, such as not giving a child medicine, or not taking or letting them go to their favorite sports club. is also common. She went home wearing dirty clothes, she said.

In addition to collecting statistics on homicides, the Spanish government also monitors proxy violence.

Figures show that since 2013, 52 children have been murdered by their father or their mother’s boyfriend or ex-boyfriend.

And in January, a total of 1,444 minors were reported to be “at risk of (vicarious) violence,” a figure that has increased by almost 40 percent over the past year.

For many years, these incidents were not thought to be directly related to gender violence.

But in 2011, the murder of two children shortly after their mother separated from their father, Jose Breton, shocked the country.

Breton claimed to have lost her children, ages 2 and 6, at the park, but their burnt remains were found a year later on her family’s property.

In 2013, he was convicted of both murders.

However, a year later, he was found not guilty of inflicting emotional violence on his mother.

“The justice system is saying, ‘You are not a victim of anything,'” said Marisa Soleto, president of the Mujeres Foundation, one of Spain’s main feminist organizations.

“There was no judicial element linking the killing of the children to the abuse of the mother.”

However, the situation changed in 2017 when Spain adopted a national agreement against gender-based violence. The agreement suspended visitation rights if a child witnessed violence or if a parent was serving time for such a crime.

According to Ministry of Justice statistics, this principle was fleshed out in a legal reform in June 2021, and within six months, the number of suspensions soared by 329%.

The amendment also prohibits the use of parental alienation theory in court, in which one parent attempts to hurt the feelings of the other parent after separation or divorce.

The controversial term has been used in custody battles in several countries, with fathers accusing ex-partners of manipulating their children to prevent him from seeing them.

Despite efforts to strengthen Spain’s legal framework, “many judges prefer to rely on their own interpretations, which means children are just thrown under the bus” based on gender. Violence Prosecutor Teresa Peramat said.

Solleto said Spain needed a law that “moved away from the typical Napoleonic Civil Code of 1804”, which was the basis of many legal systems and defined the power of men in the household over their wives and children.

“Abusers cannot make good fathers,” she said, repeating a slogan adopted by Spanish feminists.

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