A Guardia Civil officer from Torrevieja appeared in court on Tuesday accused of beating up a 17-year-old detainee. According to the charge presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, he broke two teeth and badly bruised the minor’s jaw, as a result of the blows he gave to him whilst in police facilities.
However the defendant claims that the victim was injured as he tried to head-butt the officer which he managed to evade. The youth then hit the wall, fell to the ground and hit his head.
The incident occurred in April 2008 after the youth was arrested following the theft of a bicycle. Whilst he was detained in handcuffs the officer dealt him several blows causing the injuries to his mouth and jaw.
The prosecutor also claims that the officer falsified the documentation in order to justify the serious injuries inflicted on the youth.
This is the second case of police torture in Torrevieja in recent months. At the end of last year, five local policemen were acquitted following accusations of torturing a detainee who had been caught stealing from the home of a colleague. At the end of December yet another trial saw five civil guards accused of torturing another detainee following his arrest by a plainclothes agent.
