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4 - 10 October 2018
Death payout ANDALUCIA’S public law board has ordered Almeria City Council to pay almost €232,970 in compensation to the family of a deceased disabled man run over on a disused pedestrian crossing. The Consultation Council of Andalucia ruled the local authority was liable for the payout due to the poor condition of signals at the crossing. The signalling had a ‘decisive influence’ on the events which led to the injuries that killed the man two weeks later but was not the only factor. The road was in a poor state of repair which the Council said posed risks to pedestrians and motorists. The Council said the crossing was no longer in use but that paint markings were still there which misled the man and could confuse others. The man, partially deaf, was crossing the Avenida del Mediterraneo at Calle La Loma when he was hit by an oncoming vehicle at about 7.40am in June 2016. The vehicle, driven by a pregnant woman, was travelling at 60 kilometres per hour. The driver did not see the man until he stepped out in to the road due to plants blocking her view, according to the Local Police. The man was taken to Torrecardenas Hospital with serious head injuries and the woman also required medical attention.
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CONVICTED: The case was heard in Almeria City’s Criminal Court.
By Joe Gerrard A COURT in Almeria City has handed down a threemonth suspended prison sentence to a woman convicted of starving her dog which ended up feeding off another’s body. The First Criminal Court of Almeria said in its ruling the woman, f r o m R o q u e t a s d e M a r, kept her Yorkshire Terrier in ‘deplorable’ conditions in March 2013. She was convicted of animal abuse under Article 337 of Spain’s Criminal Code.
The court heard the defendant did not provide food for her dog or put in place adequate sanitary conditions. T h e d o g s u ff e r e d f r o m severe dehydration and the wasting away of its body. It also developed a brain condition known as ataxia which caused its motor system and bodily co-ordination to fail as well as its eyes to become impaired. Animal welfare workers took the dog from the house and into a shelter where it died 48 hours after arrival. Staff at the shelter also
found the corpse of another dog in the home which they said the deceased animal had been feeding on, the court heard. The woman was sentenced under Article 337 of Spain’s Criminal Code which covers animal abuse and mistreatment. Judges at the court suspended the sentence for a period of two years. The defendant would serve her three-month sentence along with any other jail time handed down to her should she commit further crimes within the next two years. The court also barred
the woman from working with animals in any profession for one year.