Laurence Dollimore
A DUTCHMAN is suing the Spanish government after spending 12 years in jail for a rape he did not commit.
Romano van der Dussen was jailed in 2003 for allegedly attacking three women in Fuengirola.
But the convictions were quashed last year after DNA evidence revealed the culprit as Briton Mark Dixie, who had been living there at the time of attacks.
Dixie is already serving a life sentence in the UK for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Sally Anne Bowman in 2005.
Van der Dussen said he is seeking compensation for ‘damage caused’ and for being ‘wrongly deprived’ of his freedom.
He always maintained his innocence and is still contesting two lesser charges of robbery and sexual assault, which were not overturned in the appeal court.
Van der Dussen is soon to release ‘My Spanish Nightmare’, an autobiography detailing his ordeal.
Good luck Romano. You’re going to need it. Along with a very tenacious abogado, probably pro bono too. It will be a long haul.
Good luck.
Romano would win in USA. But it will be a long struggle in Spain, the land where authority is ‘always’ right.
Chas,
it’s just the same in the UK. The Brazilian electrician, murdered in cold blood, when all the State killers had to do was question him. There are at least 8 murders carried out by police over the last 10 years – as always not guilty.
The fatal error of the Spanish police can easily be topped by German police, which for many years accused ten Turkish families living spread across Germany to have lost their beloved in a druck trafficking vendetta. By chance after many years it was detected that the ten Turkish men had been shot to death over a long time by two right wing killers from Eastern Germany because xenophobia. In addition last week was detected by DNA testing that those two killers 20 years ago may have killed at least one girl of age of nine after applying sexual violence to her.
This week a islamic sucide bomber from Syria had been chased by a German police SWAT team but escaped. Then he was caught by refugees from Syria and handed over to the German police. After being in prison for just one day the terrorist commited suicide in his jail cell not being observed by the police guard for 7/24. The guards didn’t expect ‘that suicide bombers may commit suicide’. Therefor now the German central intelligence service cannot ask him whether there are other islamic suicide bombers running loose inside Germany. As long as there is no answer to this question I feel more save with Spanish police than being inside Germany.