€150,000 for death at 'Blood Wedding' house

THE owners and caretaker at Cortijo del Fraile (Nijar) were held responsible for a hunter’s death in 2009.

Both received a 12-month suspended sentence for involuntary manslaughter and must pay €150,254 compensation to the dead man’s parents. He lost his life during a night expedition at the Cortijo which was authorised at the time as a hunting area by the regional government’s Environment department.

A party of three hunters had sought and received permission to hunt boar but one died of serious head injuries after falling down an uncovered 300-metre well that was 2.7 metres across. Despite knowing that the hunters would be present on the property that night, neither the caretaker nor the company that owns it took the precaution of covering the well.

It was unnoticeable as it was partially hidden by bushes, ruled an Almeria criminal court. The partially-ruined Nijar country house was the site of a 1920s murder which later inspired the Spanish poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca to write Blood Wedding.