A civil guard suspended for six months for harassing a colleague: "all women are whores"

Victim and stalker were colleagues from the Civil Guard at the Santiago de Alcántara post, in Cáceres, and they frequently formed a pair to work together and alone. It was in those moments when the corporal went to the affected to make sexual advances. “We are alone in the pavilion and we could have a great time during the service”, Your boobs have grown” or “The cock reaches my knee” were some of the comments that the agent had to listen to.

It was also the moment when this sanctioned agent, who sometimes boasted of having been arrested for gender-based violence, uttered macho phrases such as “all women are whores, that no one can find one who is worthwhile or in conditions, that they are useless” or “What women like is to be grabbed by the hair and hit in the ass”.

The harassed Civil Guard ended up bringing the facts to the attention of the commander of the Santiago de Alcántara post, who scolded the corporal, prompting his retaliation against the victim. “When I stay as commander of the post, you’re going to find out, there’s no reply, you’re subject to military discipline,” he told her, referring to the possibility that one day he would become her superior and she wouldn’t be able to do anything against them. comments. “I have not reported it before for fear of reprisals,” she told the post commander.

When the agent denounced the machismo to which she was being subjected by her partner, the rest of the civil guards at the post made it clear that it was not an isolated attitude. “He has come to boast of having been arrested for gender-based violence and regularly makes sexist comments,” said one of the witnesses. Another said that he “is very macho and makes derogatory comments about women” and they all agreed to define him as a “liar”.

The version of the sanctioned agent went through denying the sexual propositions, framing his sexist comments in the “joke” and accusing the victim of being a “fabulator”. Arguments that did not convince the Minister of Defense, who is the one who first signed her sanction, to the Military Court, where she appealed, and finally not to the fifth chamber of the Supreme Court. Military judges have confirmed the sanction of half a year’s suspension for a very serious offense of sexual harassment.

“His behavior is not normal for a victim of harassment”

The two sentences in the case, which elDiario.es has examined, endorse the victim’s statement and rule out the defense strategy of the accused, who came to question that the attitude of the woman he harassed does not correspond to the “normal” attitude ” of a victim.

In his cassation appeal before the Supreme Court, he stated verbatim that the victim’s behavior “is not normal and foreseeable in a victim of workplace harassment and even less sexual” to later emphasize that “she is not a civilian” and as an agent of the authority should have denounced immediately and not wait. She specified from the beginning that she did not report the facts at that very moment for fear of threats of retaliation from the harasser himself.

The psychological reports provided to the case already recommended that the convicted person and the victim be separated and stop working together. The professional, who interviewed the agent, endorsed the veracity of her statement, a criterion that has been assumed by both the Central Military Court and now the Fifth Chamber of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court dismisses these arguments and reviews of the evidence just as, previously, the Central Military Court had endorsed the woman’s statement. “There is no evidence whatsoever to support that the Guard is lying, while contrary to the statements made by the components of the Post, there is total agreement that the 1st Corporal maintains a macho behavior in his usual relationships, and that he is a liar”, highlighted the military robes.