42 victims of gang rape or sexual assault in Spain so far in 2019

AT least 42 women have been victims of gang rapes or sexual assaults so far this year in Spain according to ‘Geoviolencia Sexual’ pressure group.

Part of Feminicidio.net, the group has since 2016 unofficially officially compiled from media reports statistics on multiple sexual assaults.

According Geoviolencia from the beginning of 2019 until August 2 — when the last update was carried out — 42 multiple sexual assaults have occurred. July saw the most cases with nine multiple sexual assaults, followed by March and June (seven cases each). The months with fewest cases recorded are May (three) and April (five).

The latest addition to the statistics was the case of the alleged multiple rape of an 18-year-old woman in Bilbao, allegedly committed by a group of six men aged between 18 and 36 who were arrested.

To this will need to be added the Benidorm case where five young people between 18 and 19 years have been accused of sexual assault and another crime of sexual abuse on two Norwegian women.

Since 2016, 134 multiple sexual assaults have been documented. Of this total, 20.9 per cent took place in Andalucia, another 17.9 per cent in Valencia and 17.9 per cent in Catalonia. The four provinces with the most cases are Barcelona (17 cases), Valencia (12) Malaga (10) and Alicante (nine).

Since 2016, two out of every three multiple sexual assaults were rapes, while the remaining were other types of multiple sexual assaults.

In the 134 known multiple sexual assaults, at least 471 sexual offenders have been recorded, although in some cases the exact number of alleged offenders is unknown. Of these, at least 116 were minors, or 24.6 per cent of the total. Of the 139 registered victims, one in three were minors.

Spain does not have an official register or statistic that specifically counts the number of sexual assaults committed in groups – two or more persons – that have been denounced or are under investigation.

The Ministry of the Interior does make annual reports on the criminal offences registered in Spain. According to this data, in 2018 there were around 13,811 crimes of a sexual nature, 18.1 per cent more than in 2017, when there were 11,692. According to the ‘Report on crimes against freedom and sexual indemnity 2017’, the number has been steadily increasing since 2013 when 8,923 sexual crimes were recorded.