Andalusia’s High Court has upheld a 19-year prison term for a 78-year-old man convicted of sexually assaulting and abusing his wife for more than 50 years. She reported him at 71 after fearing she would die following a beating.
The marriage began when the victim was 17 and lasted more than five decades. The couple lived in Barcelona and Andújar. On 15 October 2026, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía (TSJA) rejected the man’s appeal in full and upheld the sentence imposed by the Third Section of the Audiencia Provincial de Jaén in April 2025.
The 78-year-old received 15 years in prison for continuous sexual assault, with the family relationship treated as an aggravating factor. The Audiencia Provincial also imposed three years for habitual abuse and one year for gender-based violence, bringing the total custodial sentence to 19 years. The court maintained restrictions barring him from approaching or contacting his wife for periods of between three and ten years after leaving prison.
The court accepted evidence that arguments frequently ended with the man hitting his wife, sometimes in front of their children and grandson. After physical assaults, he took her to the bedroom and forced sex despite her crying. In 2019, he also forced her to have sex in a field while they were doing agricultural work.
She decided to report him at 71, after another beating left her afraid she would die. The abuse ended after an incident on 1 May 2020 at the couple’s home in Andújar. The man assaulted her after learning that the president of their residents’ association had entered the home to inspect damp-related problems.
The defence challenged her credibility and argued that money was the motive, citing a will made the day before the complaint. The TSJA rejected that argument: the case began after a neighbour called Spain’s 016 gender-violence helpline and police intervened. The woman had also expressly waived any claim for compensation in her first court statement. A separate dispute over credibility is basic to the Castelló defamation trial, though it involves different allegations.
The judges said the woman’s account was supported by testimony from the couple’s daughter and grandson, who lived in the family home and witnessed episodes of abuse. Police officers also gave evidence, while medical records and psychological assessments documented moderate-to-severe depression and post-traumatic stress consistent with prolonged abuse.
The court refused to reduce the sentence for undue delays. It found that the first-instance proceedings, which took less than five years, were proportionate given the case’s complexity, the decades covered and the expert reports required. The ruling also upheld €50,000 in compensation for moral harm caused by the continuous sexual assault.
The TSJA ruling is not final: a cassation appeal before Spain’s Supreme Court remains possible.
