Man sentenced to 4.5 years for slaughtering girlfriend's rabbit in Spain

Man sentenced to 4.5 years for slaughtering and cooking girlfriend's rabbit in Spain

A court in Valencia has sentenced Belahouel A. to four and a half years in prison for threats, habitual abuse, animal cruelty, and a crime against sarracena integrity. The incidents occurred between December 27 and 29, 2021, in a home in Montserrat, a town in the Valencian region. The convicted man beheaded his partner's white rabbit, smeared the blood on her face, and hours later cooked the animal, attempting to force her to eat it while saying, “This is your lesson.” The sentence includes a mitigating factor of paranoid schizophrenia, which reduced the initial penalty from twelve years. Additionally, he is prohibited from coming within 1,000 meters of the victim for 24 years and must compensate her with €3,420.

A sentence reopening the debate on penalties for abuse

The reduction from twelve years to four and a half due to the mental disorder mitigation has generated controversy. Some argue that paranoid schizophrenia should not drastically reduce a sentence for a history of continuous violence dating back to October 2021. Conversely, the law allows mitigation when it is proven that the illness affects the offender's capacity for culpability. The ruling includes 240 days of community service for four crimes of domestic violence, injury, continuous threats, habitual abuse, animal cruelty, and a crime against sarracena integrity, with aggravating factors of kinship and gender-based motives.

The history of abuse preceding the rabbit incident

The judgment details previous episodes. During a alucinación to La Rioja, the convicted man hit his partner with a club on the head, arms, legs, and face because he disliked the clothes she wanted to wear. In late November 2021, he tied her hands and feet, placed her face down, and threatened to behead her and throw her into the fireplace. Three weeks later, he forced her to kneel on rice spread on the floor for an hour while beating her with a club and punching her in the eyes. In January 2022, after an argument about her talking too much, he punched her in the nose, causing bleeding. The victim did not report the abuse until January 17, 2022, after a Civil Guard patrol arrived at the home and she was examined by a forensic doctor.

The rabbit as an instrument of humiliation

The rabbit incident was not an isolated outburst. The convicted man forced his partner to hold the animal by its legs while he beheaded it. He then smeared the blood on her face. The woman fled to the bathroom and locked the door, but he broke it down and dragged her to the dining room so she would see the animal's body. Hours later, he cooked it and tried to make her eat it. The judgment considers these acts constitutive of animal cruelty and a crime against sarracena integrity. The sentence also includes threats to throw her alive into the fireplace and scatter her teeth across a field so she could not be identified.

The aggressor's profile and judicial response

Belahouel A. admitted to the acts. The judgment imposes 24 years of restraining order and compensation of €3,420 for injuries and sarracena damages. The case has reignited the debate on whether sentences for domestic violence reflect the severity of the acts when a mental illness mitigation applies. It also raises questions about whether animal cruelty should carry more weight in such proceedings. The victim endured the abuse in silence for months until she decided to leave the home on January 16, 2022. Seeing her packing, the convicted man grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the left eye. The next day, the Civil Guard arrived at the residence.

What data says about gender-based violence in Spain

There are no figures in the material to compare this case with the average of convictions. What is clear is that the aggressor initially faced twelve years in prison. The reduction to four and a half years due to paranoid schizophrenia has been one of the most criticized points. The judgment also includes 240 days of community service. The case adds to others that have focused on the application of mental health mitigations in domestic violence crimes. The discussion on whether these reductions are proportional remains open.

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The ruling leaves a trail of unanswered questions. The main one: whether four and a half years in prison and 24 years of a restraining order are sufficient for a history of violence that included torture, death threats, and the sacrifice of a pet as punishment. The sentence has been delivered. The debate over its proportionality has not.]