The Provincial Court of Granada has acquitted the mother accused of murdering her son and starting a fire in an apartment in La Chana in May 2023. However...
In a consent order, the court determined that a “full defence of mental anomaly applies.” For the crime of manslaughter/murder with the aggravating factor of kinship, the court imposed a sentence of 20 years of confinement in a psychiatric hospital, which she cannot leave without judicial authorisation. An additional 20-year measure was imposed for the crime of arson.
The court found that her disorder completely annulled her ability to act according to the understanding that killing was a crime, driving her to commit the act.
It was proven that since August 2020, the accused had not paid rent and was facing a judicial eviction. She was baselessly convinced that her son had been a victim of sexual abuse for over three years by various individuals, even filing false reports against the child’s father and school. In 2020, she told social services she would rather kill him than have him suffer abuse again.
Taking advantage of the child being asleep, she suffocated him and set fire to their home before turning on the gas in the kitchen. The autopsy confirmed the child’s death had been violent.
When fire personnel broken into the burning flat, they found her semi-conscious in her bedroom due to smoke inhalation.
The fire caused property damage and endangered neighbours.
During the preliminary hearing, the accused freely and voluntarily accepted the charges. It was recognised that she acted under a “full exemption” due to a “persistent delusional disorder.”
The judge ordered her to pay all legal costs and established compensation of 180,000 euros for the father and 30,380 euros for the homeowners for damages not covered by home insurance.
(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia)
Keyword: Insanity Verdict, Provincial Law Court, Consent Order, Psychiatric Hospital, Mother, Son, Arson
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