A MOTHER who killed her daughter's rapist in a fit of rage in a high-profile case in the province of Alicante is now allowed to go home during the day and spend nights in prison only.
María del Carmen García's daughter Verónica was just 13 when Antonio Cosme raped her at knifepoint in October 1998, plunging the mother into a deep depression – and, when Cosme was on prison leave seven years later and attempted to provoke her, the distressed mum saw red.
Cosme, who showed no remorse whatsoever, asked María del Carmen 'how her daughter was' when he was hanging around a bus station near the family home in Benejúzar – a town he lived nowhere near, had no connections with, and was not apparently catching a bus at all.
He then went into the family's local bar, which they visited almost daily.
María del Carmen, in a combination of rage, fear and hysteria, went to the nearest petrol station, bought a vat of fuel and returned to the bar, poured the contents over her daughter's rapist and set him alight.
He suffered 90% burns and died in hospital within days.
The mother was found later that evening wandering around near the port in a daze, and confessed immediately to the killing.
She said she had intended to scare him, or badly injure him, so he had some idea of what he had put Verónica through.
This was in June 2005, and every attempt to keep María del Carmen out of prison failed.
Numerous appeals, medical records showing her severe depression and anxiety, and a flood of petitions on Change.org netting thousands of signatures, as well as requests for her to be included in Spain's traditional 'Easter reprieve list' bore no fruit, and in early 2013 she went to prison in Villena, inland from Alicante, for a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Although her family said she was not handling prison life at all well at first, María del Carmen felt it was worth the pain in exchange for knowing Verónica's rapist would no longer be in their lives.
But she expressed remorse for having taken a life.
Her solicitor managed to get her what is referred to as 'the third degree', meaning she can now spend her days in total freedom from 11.00 and only has to return to prison – this time, Alicante's Fontcalent institution, which is nearer her home – at 19.00 every night to sleep.
The relaxed régime was granted after her solicitor stressed she was extremely unlikely to commit a crime ever again, had an extensive network of social and family support, and had made every effort to adapt to life behind bars, taking part in plenty of scheduled activities.
Two 'reprieval' hearings have so far failed, although her defence is working on a third.
She is now, however, on the home strait, since she is due for release in summer 2018.
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