Who was to blame for child abuser’s release?

In a case that has caused enormous debate in Spain somebody is being sought to take the blame for an error that could have contributed to the death of a five year old girl in Huelva. The girl, Mari Luz Cortes, went missing one afternoon and it wasn't until 54 days later that her body was found floating in the estuary near her home. A man was later arrested for her murder and when it was discovered that the accused man had more than one conviction for child abuse, including against his own daughter, and was not in jail despite having been sentenced to prison the public outcry was overwhelming.

The man,
Santiago del Valle Garcia, now in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Mari Luz sexually abused his own daughter in 1998. The judge in that case took four years to find him guilty and sentence him to two years and nine months in prison, the defence appealed and it took another three and a half years before the prison sentence was confirmed. When the court tried to contact Santiago del Valle to execute the sentence he had moved and was declared 'whereabouts unknown'. He was actually living in Gijon with his wife where he was accused and condemned of abusing another young girl, in this trial the first sentence was taken into account but as it was still under appeal he was only found guilty of a first offence and so avoided jail but was ordered to present himself to the court on the first and fifteenth of each month, something he did diligently even while he was supposedly being searched for by the court he had been condemned to prison by and something he did only days before the death of Mari Luz.

The blame for this mess has been laid at the doors of the court in Seville where he was originally condemned. The judge in the case was found guilty of a 'falta grave' (serious misdemeanour) in his handling of the situation and was fined 1,500 euros. Now the judicial secretary of the court involved is to go before a disciplinary hearing in Almeria accused of negligence in allowing the delays in the execution of the sentence. The judge who will preside is Juana Alfonso Rodriguez who is the sister of Pilar Alfonso, the judge of the case looking into illegal construction in Zurgena.