The Mossos d'Esquadra, the autonomous police of Catalonia, arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of being the perpetrator of the brutal rape of a 16-year-old girl in the municipality of Igualada (Barcelona) on Halloween night 2021.
According to reports in the Spanish press, the arrest took place shortly before 6:00 am in Igualada. The detainee is a 20-year-old man of Bolivian nationality with a history of sexual assault and no apparent relationship with the victim.
Detenim un home a Igualada presumptament relacionat amb l’agressió sexual que va patir una jove en aquesta població l'1 de novembre. La Unitat Central d’Agressions Sexuals de la DIC es va encarregar d’investigar el cas que continua sota secret de sumari pic.twitter.com/TOuj4jEK7K
— Mossos (@mossos) April 21, 2022
The investigation, which has lasted for more than 5 months, has been particularly difficult because the victim does not remember her aggressor and also due to the low quality of the footage from the security cameras in the area where the events occurred.
The rape occurred in the early hours of November 1, after the young girl left the Epic nightclub in Igualada. Her intention was to go to the nearest railway station to catch a train back to her mother's house, in the municipality of Vilanova i la Geltru. It was just a 20-minute walk through an industrial estate, but the girl never made it to the train.
Hours later, a truck driver found her, naked and unconscious, in a field near the Igualada train station. Due to the attacks, the victim remained in the Sant Joan de Deu Hospital in Barcelona for more than a month. She needed to be operated on 5 times and she suffers serious consequences, including hearing loss in one ear.
Hit with iron bar
According to the preliminary investigation, in addition to raping her, the alleged aggressor used an iron bar to hit her.
To get to the suspect, the police have analyzed the security cameras in the area and collected dozens of testimonies from possible witnesses. Among them, those of several friends of the victim, who were with her that night and who saw her leaving the nightclub.
The Central Unit for Sexual Assaults of the Catalan police is investigating the case, which remains under judicial secrecy.
