When it come to domestic violence, over the whole of Spain, on average we lose around one woman every five days during the course of a year. The attrition is constant and despite successive governments’ attempts to give the problem a higher profile to increase citizen awareness to it, the litany of deaths and vexations trickle through the subsections of most dailies – only when a particularly gruesome case appears does it capture a front-page spot.

One such case which had the nation as a whole both shocked and enraged was the case of the husband who set his ex-wife on fire in the middle of a street – she had appeared on a TV show that was covering domestic violence just days before to speak about her case, admitting that she was constantly in fear of her life.

Now, with the economical crisis throttling the life out of low-income families and leaving hitherto middle-class families at the door of food banks, fewer woman are willing to come forward and denounce their aggressors – having lost their jobs that gave them a small margin of independence, they now find themselves completely dependent upon their tormentors. Even if they were personally willing to live under a bridge, they can’t maintain their children and leaving them behind is unthinkable, so better to put up with the blows and hope for better times.

The police now receive on average four calls a day from battered wives and partners, where as just two years ago, it was six a day; that’s a 33% drop in calls. You would think that things were getting better, but the hospital and mortuary figure belie this.

The most recent case, besides the one covered (HERE), is one that took place in 2007 but has finally reached trial now, involving a man who killed his wife with a gardening hoe in the middle of a street. We’re not using “allegedly” even though the jury has not reached a conclusion, because whether he killed her or not is not in question, but whether it was murder or manslaughter – the defence are trying for a temporary insanity verdict, whereas the Public Prosecutor considers that the act was clearly premeditated.

(News: Granada, Andalucia, Spain)