A group of boys dropped a large stone from an autovia bridge; it went through a windscreen, killing a hapless 59-year-old man in the front passenger seat.

The incident, which took place in July 2012, involved three boys; two brothers and another boy with diminished mental faculties. The stone weighed 15 kilos…

The judge found the parents guilty in the first instance, against which they appealed, but their culpability was confirmed by the appeals judge, although the compensation for the widow was lowered from 178,000 to 148,000.

The two families of the minors had tried to shift the blame between them, hence it going to an appeals court. In fact, the appeals judge stated that precisely because one of the boys had diminished mental faculties, his parents should have been exercising great control over their child.

The three boys, all around 13, blamed each other: the two brothers said that they had only dropped sand and gravel and that it had been the other boy who had dropped the large stone, whereas, this third boy claimed that the brothers had told him that if he did not help them, he would no longer be their friend. For this reason the judge decided that it was impossible to ascertain who actually dropped the fatal stone and considered that they were all equally responsible.

This is the first such sentence where the parents of minors have been held judicially responsible for their offsprings’ criminal acts.

(news: Murcia, Spain)