A man working as a ‘maître’ in a Toreremolinos hotel has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing a waitress.
The judge at the Criminal Court Number One in Málaga found the defendant, aged 50 years, guilty of using his position of authority to sexually abuse a member of the staff.
The court heard that the man would approach the waitress when she was alone, grab her round the waist and kiss the back of her neck. On one occasion, witnessed by another member of staff, he kissed the waitress on the mouth.
The waitress, through fear of losing her job, tolerated his behaviour for some time before finally making a complaint. The defendant, in addition to a jail sentence, has been ordered to pay €3,000 compensation to the girl for the moral damage caused as, according to the ruling, she displayed obvious signs of psychological stress and anxiety.
The events actually took place between August 2002 and April 2003.
The defendant had also been convicted of a similar offence carried out during the period February 2002 and May 2003. He was fined €3,240 and ordered to pay compensation of €500 to his victim, also a waitress. The sentence was confirmed by the Provincial Court in December 2004.
In this latest case, the defendant had argued that ‘profit’ was the motive behind the complaint, but this argument was rejected by the court.