Teens tortured so badly that forensics were 'distraught' at sight of the bodies
PARENTS of three teenage girls gang-raped, tortured and brutally murdered after hitch-hiking to a disco in 1992 fear the ECHR's verdict on the Parot Doctrine could mean their killer goes free.
Desirée Hernández Folch and Miriam García Íborra, both 14 and Antonia 'Toñi' Gómez Rodríguez, 15, went missing on Friday 13th in November 1992 when they were on their way to Coolor disco in Picassent (Valencia province), near their home village of Alcàsser, but never arrived.
Their murder by two strangers, described at the time as 'satanic', was the most brutal seen in Spain since the Civil War and extremely rare, given that the country's violent crime statistics have always been among the lowest in Europe and in nearly all cases, victims and killers know each other well.
And Miguel Ricart, now 44, may be another candidate for early release from jail as a result of the European Court of Human Rights having declared Spain is in breach of EU law by applying the Doctrine retroactively.
The Parot Doctrine means that where a prisoner accumulates early-release 'credits' through 'good behaviour' – such as one day deducted from their sentence in exchange for two days' work whilst in jail – it is applied to the actual sentence, not the custodial term the inmate will serve.
In Ricart's case, any early-release credit would be applied to his 170-year sentence, but now the Doctrine has been overturned, it will be deducted from the maximum of 30 years he can be expected to actually serve.
He is due out of jail in 10 years' time, but may walk free much earlier as a result of the ECHR verdict.
The surviving parents of the girls – Miriam's mother and Désirée's father both died soon after their daughters – say the Strasbourg verdict is 'painful' and 'the last thing they need'.
Tortured, mutilated and forced to walk into their own grave
As was common at the time and in particular among teens who went to Coolor, the young victims – who would now be aged 35 and 36 - decided to hitch-hike, having firstly stopped at the home of their friend Ester Díez whose bout of 'flu, the reason she chose not to accompany the others to the disco, probably saved her life.
Miriam is said to have telephoned home at around 20.00hrs and spoken to her mother Matilde, asking if her father could take the girls to Coolor – but Sra Íborra said her dad Fernando had already gone to bed with a bad cold and that they should not be going to a disco 'at this time of night'.
This was the last time Miriam's parents heard her voice – and Matilde passed away from cancer in 1998, believed to have been brought on by the loss of her daughter and her own guilt, something Fernando, who continues to fight for the truth, says he will always live with.
According to witnesses, the girls got into a car which stopped for them, but it broke down near a petrol station and they got out and thumbed another lift.
They then got into a car driven by Miquel Ricart, 23, and also occupied by Antonio Anglés, 26.
Once they reached the disco, Anglés ordered Ricart to keep driving, which terrified the girls, according to the case file.
They were taken to an abandoned house in a rural area where they were raped repeatedly, including anally, sexually abused with very large, blunt objects, long poles and sharp instruments inserted into both orifices, tied up and beaten.
The girls were then untied near a huge hole which had been dug in the ground and believed they were going to be set free, but one girl was stabbed twice in the back and they discovered this was to be their last resting place.
A court heard the girls were forced to walk into their own grave and that two of them were shot in the head, killing them outright, whilst the third – who had been stabbed – was beaten with stones and sticks for another hour, lying tied up on top of the bodies of her two friends, before also being shot in the head.
When their bodies were found, forensics revealed that one girl's arm had been sawn off above the elbow and another had her nipple wrenched off with a pair of pliers, and that this and all their other bruising and broken bones were sustained while they were still alive.
Some experienced investigators had to be excused from the case because the state of the girls' bodies after less than 24 hours of torture was so extreme that they were too distressed to continue.
The post-mortem showed that at least two of them had put up a fight while being tortured, and that one of the girls was raped again after she was dead.
Traces of DNA of seven people in total were found near the ovaries and inside the rectum of all three girls, but only Anglés and Ricart were known to be involved.
'Sadist' Anglés: believed drowned in Ireland, but may still be at large
Anglés, said to be the main instigator and having raped the girls while Ricart held them down – although Ricart raped one of them four times – fled the area before police could reach him.
He is believed to have crossed over to Portugal and taken a City of Plymouth ferry from Lisbon, but it is said that he was spotted when the boat reached the Irish coast and threw himself into the sea to escape.
Nobody knows whether he drowned or died of cold, or whether he is still at large, but he continues to be on Interpol's 'most wanted' list.
His Brazilian mother Neusa, originally from São Paulo, told the press that her son was 'a sadist' and that even if he were found alive, she would not want anything to do with him.
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A NEW child protection law named after a British musician living in Spain has been approved in Congress and is set to be signed off by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, June 8.
