FEMINIST groups are attempting to keep the recently-released gang rapists isolated from society now they are back on the streets.
Known as La Manada, the group is out on bail pending their appeal and women in Sevilla want to make sure they cannot even leave their homes.
They have been distributing posters around shops, bars, restaurants and other business premises which read: “We do not serve rapists in this establishment. #STOPManada. This is a safe space for women.”
Also, they have handed out letters to as many retailers and bars as they can which read: “Dear Trader: We women do not provide our custom to businesses which serve rapists. We invite you to join our action in this respect by displaying a warning poster at your entrance.”
Among the premises targeted are many establishments regularly patronised by the gang and near their workplaces.
Women in Sevilla say they want to 'inform traders that we women are not afraid and La Manada is not welcome in this city'.
They say they hope the men will not be given their old jobs back.
“These men are able to move freely around the whole country, except Madrid, due to an injunction preventing them going near the victim's home city; but the victim cannot go anywhere. She cannot leave her city or even her home; she's trapped. So we want these men to feel trapped, too,” a spokeswoman for the campaigners said.
Members of the public, including the feminist activists, have plastered Sevilla with posters, each showing a photograph of one of the men, with the caption: “I'm a rapist and the State permits it.”
The five men, at least two of whom are military trained, lured a drunken 18-year-old woman into a doorway during the Sanfermines bull-running festival in Pamplona in summer 2016 and took turns to rape her while the other four filmed her ordeal.
The young woman, from Madrid, said she opted to remain passive until they had finished for her own safety, as she knew there would be no point in fighting against five men between 10 and 20 years older than her.
But two months ago, the gang – known as La Manada, or 'The Herd' – was acquitted of rape, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in jail, and convicted of the 'milder' offence of 'sexual abuse', meaning they were only imprisoned for nine years.
The judges said the woman did not struggle or expressly refuse sex, and that she 'did not feel pain', with one magistrate even saying the video footage showed them 'all having a good time' and called for all charges to be dropped.
A wave of protests sparked after the sentence has now been revived in earnest, since the men have filed an appeal and managed to persuade the court in Navarra to release them on bail to the tune of €6,000 each.
La Manada, a gang with initiation rites and whose members all have criminal records, are now back in their native city of Sevilla.
The photograph shows two of 'The Herd', Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo (left) and Antonio Manuel Guerrero (right) leaving the military prison in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) in a taxi.
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