A CÓRDOBA man charged with the murder of his two small children started his trial yesterday (Monday) amid mass media coverage, and his fate will be decided by a public jury of seven women and four men.
They will be led by nine legal experts – seven women and two men – and two stand-in advisors in case of absence, who are both men.
In addition, 46 forensic detectives and 98 witnesses will be called upon to give evidence, and the accused faces up to 40 years in jail if found guilty.
Prosecutor María Ángeles Rojas, specialist in domestic and family violence, has stressed to the jury that they must not allow their decision to be influenced by the public hysteria and sensational press headlines which have been prolific since the disappearance of six-year-old Ruth and José, two, on October 8, 2011, and to rid themselves of any pre-conceived ideas.
But she says she is 'in no doubt' José Bretón killed his children 'in the cruellest way possible' and that he burnt their bodies on a bonfire deliberately built to reach an extreme temperature and destroy the evidence.
Rojas also warned the jury that what they would hear from the accused when he testifies today will be 'a fairy story invented by him' and 'pure fantasy'.
She says the defence still considers Bretón's own version of events – that the children went missing in the Cruz Conde Park in Córdoba – is true and that 'despite proof', believes that the bones found in the remains of the fire were not those of the little girl and boy.
Solicitor María del Reposo Carrero, acting for the children's mother – who has also brought charges in her own name as well as those brought by the State – describes the alleged murder as 'an atrocity' of the first degree and that she has always struggled with the idea that 'anyone would be capable of murdering their own children'.
“This is not a case of a man who lost control of himself and went crazy. This was not an act of madness or impulse, nor fear, nor self-defence, nor any other circumstance humanly comprehensible – we are in the presence of a very evil person,” Carrero stated.
She considers that the 'funeral pyre' Bretón built in his parents' orchard at their house in Las Quemadillas (Córdoba) was also aimed at his ex-wife and mother of his children, Ruth Ortiz.
They were in the process of separating and Bretón had the children, who lived in Huelva with their mother, for the weekend, and on the day they went missing he tried to call her three times – but she did not pick up the phone.
Bretón's solicitor José María Sánchez de Puerta says his client has been 'crucified' from the start and 'condemned by public opinion', being called 'Satan' and 'a demon', but that he was 'not like that'.
Sánchez de Puerta says he has often seen the accused crying, that he 'constantly asks if anyone knows anything about where his children are' and that he has 'never spoken of them in the past tense, only ever in the present'.
The defence says Bretón 'still believes Ruth and José are alive' and that it is not known for certain if they are dead and if so, how they died, meaning it is 'reckless' to paint him as a cold-blooded murderer.
After Ruth and José were reported missing by Bretón – who is said to have been 'far too calm and matter-of-fact' when he alerted police of their 'disappearance' – their mother suspected her ex-husband had killed them and directed officers to their paternal grandparents' orchard.
A bonfire had been built using olive logs, which burn well, and large quantities of diesel and highly-combustible construction waste, in a makeshift brick 'kiln' with a metal table-top over it.
This had the effect of raising the temperature to between 800ºC and 1,200ºC, as hot as a crematorium, thus destroying the bodies completely.
As a result, forensics were unable to extract DNA from the bones they found.
Police initially ruled out that the children had been burnt on the fire after a forensic claimed the bones were those of rodents, but Ruth Ortiz employed two private forensic detectives who said the remains corresponded with human children – one of whom was female and aged around six-and-a-quarter.
A total of five legal medicine and anthropology experts have examined the bones, and four of them came to the latter conclusion.
Whilst Ortiz's lawyer believes Bretón also intended to kill his ex-wife and burn her remains on the same fire, Bretón continues to deny the killing and urges authorities to keep up the search for the children, apparently believing them to be alive.
If the bones are indeed those of Ruth and José, it is not clear how they died and whether they were still alive when they were placed on the fire.
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