Costa de Almería
Illegal El Ejido nursery owner gets sentence reduced after baby's death
By m.p. - Sep 17, 2009 - 2:39 PM
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The Andalucía High Court ruled her to be guilty of negligent homicide and not murder
A woman found guilty of the death of a 14 month old baby in her care has had her sentence reduced in a ruling from the Andalucía High Court which reduced the verdict to negligent homicide. A trial by jury at the provincial court in Almería had previously found her guilty of murder and imposed a sentence of eight years in prison.
The child died in 1996 at an unlicensed nursery school at the woman’s home in El Ejido from injuries which the High Court ruled were caused by a ‘heavy blow or kick’ to the stomach. They ruled the woman’s actions as the ‘worst cowardice’ in hitting the defenceless child, but took into account her later attempts to save the baby boy’s life as evidence that she did not mean to kill him.
She will now spend three and a half years in prison and has been ordered to pay the 120,000 € compensation previously set by the lower court.
Europa Press reports that the baby who died was the son of the accused’s best friend.