The Supreme confirms 14 years in prison for the former leader of Vox in Lleida for abusing two people with disabilities

José Antonio Ortiz Cambray presented himself as president of Vox in Lleida until Santiago Abascal’s party suspended him from militancy after his arrest in March 2019, shortly after the last episode of abuse that the Supreme Court now declares proven. The party at that time erased any trace of the presence of this abuser in Vox on all social networks.

In total, Justice attributes a crime of sexual abuse, two more of corruption of a person with a disability and a last crime of pornography with the use of a person with a disability. The former leader of Vox in Lleida first contacted his victims through WhatsApps offering small amounts of money in exchange for having sexual encounters. He told one of the victims that “the better you do, the more you get paid” and he tried, unsuccessfully, with a third person who also had a disability.

The Supreme Court, with Antonio del Moral as rapporteur, rejects all the reasons for his appeal and makes it clear that he abused his two victims taking advantage of their disability. For example, he highlights how he used “the difference in age, and the way in which the accused gained the will of the victims by manipulating them with the lure of offering and delivering small amounts of money, taking advantage of their mental immaturity that prevented them from capturing or discern the meaning and social connotations” of what he proposed to them.

The Supreme Court confirms for him a sentence of 14 years and 3 months in prison, in addition to the obligation to compensate his victims with a total of 20,000 euros between the two. The first sentence was imposed by the Provincial Court of Lleida, later confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia and now firmly ratified by the Supreme Court, which will imply his compulsory imprisonment to serve his sentence.