Judge hands out 83 year prison sentence

The Provincial Court in Barcelona has sentenced Pedro Jímenez to 83 years in prison for the rape and murder of two police officers in Hospitalet in 2004.

Jímenez was found guilty of two murders, sexual assault, burglary, robbery, arson and descecration of a corpse. The prosecution was demanding a prison sentence of 102 years and 11 months.

The judge, in sentencing Jímenez to the maximum 40 years, ensures that he will not be entitled to early release within the next 30 years.

The Court heard how, In the early morning of October 5th 2004, Pedro Jímenez, who was on special release from prison, took the metro to Belvitge in Hospitalet de Llobregat. Two hours later he chose his victim, a 28 year old trainee police officer who was on the way home to Rambla Marina after spending the night on duty in Castelldefels police station.

Jímenez forced his way into the home of the police officer and then raped both her and her flatmate before killing them both and setting fire to the house to cover his tracks.

At the trial, which was held in July 2008, Jímenez denied committing the crime, saying that evidence against him was being ‘manipulated’ in order to incriminate him.

Although there were no eye witnesses to the crime, the judge ruled that the evidence against Jímenez was not only sufficient, but overwhelming. The evidence included fingerprints and footprints left in blood on the floor and the accused’s DNA found inside the bodies of the victims.

Jímenez did, however, admit to having been in the apartment, but only to collect a package of drugs, hence his prints, implying that the two police officers were somehow involved in drug dealing. This version of events was rejected by the Court.

One month after the trial, on August 26th, Jímenez was attacked and injured by fellow inmates and required hospital treatment but was returned to prison shortly afterwards.

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