The aggression against a minor in the Plaza de la Llotja in Lleida has opened two different avenues of action due to the age of the alleged perpetrators. One is 14 years old and can be charged by juvenile justice. The other is 13, so the Prosecutor's Office cannot intervene in that area, and protection measures fall to the General Directorate for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents of the Generalitat.
Here lies the main fracture of the case. While the victim's family has expanded the complaint with a video of the aggression on April 13, one of the mothers maintains that she had been warning of serious problems for a long time without receiving an effective response, and the city council reports that it also did not receive information that would have allowed it to intervene earlier.
The Prosecutor's Office awaits the identity of the 14-year-old minor to act
The Juvenile Prosecutor's Office is awaiting the Mossos d'Esquadra to send the expanded police proceedings with the identity data of the 14-year-old minor. From that dispatch, it will be able to decide on the steps in juvenile jurisdiction.
The conduct under investigation could fit a crime of assault, harassment, or school bullying, depending on the criminal classification finally determined as the proceedings advance. The expansion of the complaint by the victim's family includes a video of the aggression.
This material is added to the proceedings opened after the events that occurred in the Plaza de la Llotja, in a case that clearly distinguishes the legal response for each minor involved due to the age difference between them.
The mother of the 13-year-old minor assures that she had been reporting aggressions for a year and a half
The mother of the alleged 13-year-old aggressor stated that she had asked for help before what happened. In her case, being below the penal age, the intervention does not correspond to juvenile justice.
"I have been warning for a long time that something like this could happen. I myself reported a year and a half ago that my daughter had assaulted me. In the last year, I have gone to the Municipal Ombudsman's Office and many other places like the social worker, and the response has always been the same, that things move slowly" - mother of the alleged 13-year-old aggressor
She added that the minor had also had recent incidents in the healthcare setting. In that same statement, she affirmed that last week she had problems with the psychiatrist and that she runs away from home, but that no action is taken because no neglect is perceived.
The difference between the two ages conditions the entire institutional response. At 14 years old, the minor can fall under the action of the Prosecutor's Office for Minors. At 13, the margin goes through the administrative protection mechanisms of the Generalitat.
Larrosa criticizes the lack of coordination between administrations
The mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, expressed his indignation at the aggression and focused on the coordination between services and institutions. He also linked this deficiency to the impossibility of activating municipal intervention sooner.
"We are in the investigation phase, we are talking about minors who are below the penal age. It is a situation that requires intervention, talking to families and providing them with support, but it is not behavior that is justified. The indignation is total" - Fèlix Larrosa, mayor of Lleida
Later, Larrosa insisted that the city council would have acted if it had had prior information about the situation. At that point, he summarized his criticism with a sentence directed at the lack of connection between administrations and services.
Fèlix Larrosa maintained that, if the council had had information at the municipal level, it could have intervened, and added that a mother's statement saying she doesn't know what to do with her daughter is devastating.