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A woman who was part of a school WhatsApp group for parents who had asked to add the ex-partner of another mother was violently attacked during a heated argument in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The aggressor did not like the fact that the woman had suggested adding her ex-partner and summoned her to a park in order to talk to her. However, the exchange of words escalated, the conversation became more heated and the events that followed ended up in court. The court sentenced the woman to four years in prison for attacking the victim with a box cutter. The judge also imposed a restraining order which prohibits the woman from contacting or coming within 200 metres of the victim and also ordered her to pay compensation 12,772.44 euros.
After having insulted and threatened each other on several occasions in the WhatsApp group, the defendant inflicted multiple serious cuts on the victim - to her head, face, shoulders, and arms. According to the account of events included in the ruling, the complainant gave a statement that was described as “clear, coherent, forceful and credible”, stating that while they were arguing, her phone fell to the ground and, as she tried to retrieve it, the accused “launched herself in her face and hit her.”
She thought at first it had only been a "slap", but she had already cut her lip with the box cutter, and "the blood was flowing". The woman then attacked her again - on the head, arms, and leg. It was the victim’s aunt who managed to separate them and who took her "immediately to the medical centre, where they stitched her up, applied staples, and even gave her a blood transfusion because of the amount of blood she had lost".
The assaulted mother stated in her testimony that her current partner - who had previously been in a relationship with the accused and had two children with her - told her that the accused had shown him a box cutter and said: “I’m going to use this on that bitch.”
In the sentence, the court said that the victim's statement "has been totally persistent in the incrimination, without having entered into contradictions or significant changes throughout the proceedings". All of this despite acknowledging the enmity and disagreements between them. Furthermore, it considers that it has been "coherent and plausible as it has been corroborated by objective elements that support it and give it solidity". On the other hand, the ruling states that the defendant's alternative version "is clearly unsubstantiated, as there is no evidence to suggest that the victim injured herself or had someone else injure her in order to incriminate her".
According to the ruling, the objective elements of the criminal offence were met: "An injury was caused which required medical treatment in the form of stitches to heal the wound, as can be seen in the forensic report. Furthermore, to cause the aforementioned injury, a weapon was used, specifically a box cutter, which must be considered to be specifically dangerous to life or health, given that it could endanger the legal rights protected by the criminal law."
According to the judgement, "although the injuries were not considered vital, the victim required immediate attention and even a blood transfusion, and it is likely that if she had not received it, a more unfortunate outcome could have occurred".
The magistrate emphasised that the intention to cause bodily harm to the victim "is clearly evident from having summoned her to go to the place where she was assaulted and for having brought and used a box cutter to perpetrate the attack". The judge concluded that the presumption of innocence of the accused "has been completely overturned, with no doubt remaining after the evidence was presented."
The sentence is not final and can be appealed before the provincial court of the Balearic Islands.
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