The Generalitat’s Department of Social Rights will award €12,500 in compensation to a child who was sexually assaulted by another resident at a protection centre in Barcelona in August 2023, according to information published by El País.
The child was under the guardianship of the Direcció General d’Atenció a la Infància i l’Adolescència (DGAIA), the Generalitat’s child and adolescent protection service. The case concerns the duty of care owed to children placed in residential protection centres.
Another resident received a youth justice sentence
The other resident, who was 15 when the complaint was made, admitted the assault and was sentenced to two years in a youth justice centre, El País reported.
The child had entered the DGAIA centre in August 2022, aged eight, after the administration declared him to be without adequate parental care and took guardianship.
Two years later, a court annulled that administrative decision and ordered the child’s return to his family, finding that the decision had not been justified.
Lawyer cites failures in protection
Cristina Serra, the criminal lawyer handling the case, said the compensation reflected Supreme Court case law, which has set awards of between €12,000 and €15,000 in comparable sexual-assault cases.
“It is unacceptable for a child to be in a place intended for their care and protection without the authorities detecting such serious violations of their rights,” Serra said.
Serra said financial compensation would never make up for the actual harm and the abandonment suffered by the child.
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