Asunta murder trial: Mother and main suspect, Rosario Porto, will represent herself in court

Sra Porto, a qualified solicitor who no longer practises and former French consul for her home town of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia – even though she is Spanish, not French – recently applied to the city's College of Lawyers for permission to act as her own defence.

She has been granted right of audience 'for this case only' in accordance with the General Statute of Legal Practice in Spain, which allows any person with a law degree to represent him or herself in court upon application.

Porto, whose adopted daughter Asunta was found dead in a woods in Teo (A Coruña province), close to the family home and to the luxury villa belonging to her late grandparents on her mother's side, will continue to work with the solicitor who has been assisting her to date, José Luis Gutiérrez Aranguren.

But she will be able to interrogate witnesses and other parties charged with Asunta's murder.

This means that in exercising her own defence, Rosario will be able to cross-examine her ex-husband and Asunta's adoptive father, well-known radio and TV reporter Antonio Basterra, as well as the Colombian national based in Madrid whose semen was found on Asunta's clothing, even though he has an alibi for the night of the murder.

Despite semen being found on the deceased child's clothes, no signs of sexual abuse were found and it is believed DNA samples may have become mixed up in the laboratory, since the Colombia citizen had supplied his at police orders due to being investigated for a possible rape.

Rosario's solicitor will be joining her in the trial, since he will have to act for her when she is cross-examined.

Asunta was found to have been given lethal doses of the tranquilliser Orfidal, also sold under the brand name of Lorazepam, on several occasions, including the night she was found dead.

She had told friends and teachers that her parents were trying to kill her, but nobody followed this up, even though on at least two occasions she turned up to class in a drowsy and confused state with the appearance of having been drugged.

Her mother had told her school that she was taking very strong medication for asthma which often left her 'out for the count', but Asunta's paediatrician has since told the court that the child did not suffer asthma or any other known allergy.

On the day of Asunta's murder, her father was known to have gone to pharmacies and purchased up to 50 doses of Orfidal, and her mother's own alibi failed when her story about Asunta having been left behind in the house and disappearing whilst Rosario fetched groceries was shown to be incorrect thanks to petrol station CCTV footage.