Do not adjust your reading glasses; you understood correctly. Amazingly he has kept his job.

The incident occurred on the 11th of June, 2011 at 09.30h, in a train carriage in Asturias, Northern Spain, involving a woman in her 60’s, a 23-year-old, off-duty Guardia Civil policeman and his civilian friend of a similar age.

Suddenly, the friend went over and sat next to the woman and made a series of indecent suggestions of the kind that would make even a boson’s mate blush and then put his hand between her legs.

In the meantime, the policeman laughed, thinking that it funny enough to record on his mobile telephone.

A fellow passenger tried to intervene but received a split lip and a black eye for his troubles – the policeman, again, did absolutely nothing.

Now, if you think this is shameful enough, read on, because although the policeman was found guilty of dereliction of duty, which should automatically have him expelled from the force and the friend was found guilty of sexual assault, nobody is going to jail, even though these sentences, after several appeals, were confirmed by the Supreme Court.

Why? Because the family of the guardsman began collecting signatures for a pardon in their home town, Pola de Lena, and in the local area and the Central Government granted it.

The Government gave the policeman a partial pardon, because the victim did not oppose the petition as she did not want him to lose his job, as she did not consider him guilty of the assault.

Nevertheless, after all became clear, some of those that signed the petition considered that they were deceived by the family, amongst them, the Mayor, Ramón Argüelles, who said that the family’s version “had nothing to do with” what actually happened.

And here’s the final twist, the guardsman’s father, José Manuel Arbesú, is none other than a conservative councillor at the Pola de Lena, Town Hall. The conservative central government, however, claims that they were not aware that the father was a member of their own party.

The policeman was originally sentenced to a 6-month suspension of service, which would have earned him a dishonorable discharge, but thanks to the Government’s pardon, he only has to pay a 500-euro fine and that’s it.

Even the friend who carried out the sexual assault only received a fine of little over 1,000 euros as well as having to pay 450 euros in compensation to the man whom he attacked.

So far, this Government has issued 806 pardons since coming to power in 2011 – last year the British Government, in contrast, only issued one, which was for the mathematician, Alan Turing, who died 60 years ago.

Despite this abundance of pardons, many of which have been highly controversial, the Government has not considered a pardon for the two strike pickets that are facing three years in prison for preventing a bar from opening during the last General Strike.

(News: Asturias, Spain)