In the early hours of Sunday morning, a jury delivered the verdict on a harrowing case in Elche which saw the brutal death of a two year old boy in 2018. The child, Aaron, was beaten to death in a case which shocked the local community. His mother and her partner were arrested at the time, and this week, the case drew to a close with the jury finally delivering the guilty verdict at 1am on Sunday.
The mother’s boyfriend committed the actual murder, but she too shares in the guilty verdict because, as stated by the jury she was “aware of habitual abuse, and did nothing to prevent it.” The jury ruled out applying mitigations for drug use and have concluded that the couple were “fully aware” of the damage caused.
The verdict was delivered after six days of trial. The first session took place on Monday, when the two defendants testified. The stepfather of the child assumed responsibility for the beating, which he blamed on a fit of anger caused by the consumption of narcotics. The child’s mother, stated that on the day of the events, September 13, 2018, she had left the home she shared with the accused and the child to go to the doctor and the pharmacy, and that upon her return home discovered that the child had been injured. According to her version, it was then that they sought help from the neighbours. A woman took them to the Vinalopó Hospital, with the little boy already unconscious. On the way to hospital, near l’Aljub shopping centre, they had a traffic accident, and the driver they collided with was eventually the one who took the couple and the child to the hospital. It was there that the first alarm bells began to ring for healthcare staff: not all the injuries that the boy presented corresponded to that same morning. An investigation was then opened for an alleged crime of habitual abuse. The little boy died four days later in at Alicante Hospital as a result of his injuries, as he had serious brain injuries caused by suffocation, and forensic evidence pointed to the fact that the two year old had been strangled.
Both the Prosecutor’s Office and private accusations, which were levelled by the child’s biological father and grandmother, asked for the two defendants to be tried for murder, as well as child abuse.
The defendant had maintained throughout the trial that she was not aware of previous mistreatment, and that she had never seen marks or bruises on the child that made her suspect that he was a victim of beatings. Her partner, although he did confess to the fatal beating, denied that he routinely mistreated the child, and claimed that the events of that day were a one off, caused by mental breakdown related to drug use.
Both have been in prison since the day were arrested, the same day that the boy was admitted to Vinalopó Hospital. Now that the jury has returned the guilty verdict, it will be the Seventh Section of the Provincial Court of Elche who will have to pass sentence. During the six days trial, a hundred people testified, including witnesses, police investigators and experts.