Badalona mayor-elect to ask Congress to lower age of criminal responsibility after latest gang rape
Xavier Garcia Albiol says under-14s should be prosecuted and "take responsibility" for their actions
The mayor-elect of Badalona wants Spain's Minors Act changed to lower the age of criminal responsibility after Saturday's alleged gang rape in the city, the latest in a series of sexual assaults involving underage victims and perpetrators.
Speaking to RAC1 radio on Tuesday morning, he proposed that a commission should be created by the Spanish congress in Madrid to examine the issue, and offered to take part in it.
Albiol, who recently won a landslide victory for the conservative People's Party in Catalonia's fourth most populous city, said that current legislation "does not reflect the evolution that society has undergone in recent years" and was written "in accordance with a mentality that no longer exists."
He criticized the fact that young people who commit these criminal acts are not punished and said that "there must be an intermediary point" between prison and a fine.
Albiol said a commission in congress should address the revision of the Minors Act so that children under 14 who commit rape "take responsibility" for their actions.