THE CONVERSATION: Why are gang rape accusations treated as ‘sexual abuse’ in Spain? Another trial fails another victim

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An ongoing trial in Spain shows that ineffective rape legislation continues to fail women. Last year’s trial of the shocking “la Manada” (“wolf-pack”) rape case brought the Spanish law under international scrutiny when a group of men were convicted of sexual abuse rather than rape, despite the degrading nature of the attack.

The supreme court recently convicted all five perpetrators of gang rape in a retrial, increasing their sentences from nine to 15 years accordingly. But now a second case is again showing how sexual violence laws in Spain are inflected with misogyny. This latest trial has become known as “la Manada de Manresa” (“the wolf-pack of Manresa”, a town in northern Catalonia) because of its alarming similarities with the now infamous Manada crime.