VOX candidate for Benidorm mayor booted out after revealing he received two-year sentence for domestic violence last February

VOX’S top candidate for Benidorm mayor has been replaced after it was revealed he received a two-year prison sentence for repeated domestic violence last February.

Prison sentences under two years are often waived in Spain, if the accused has no previous criminal record, but the February 27 verdict prohibited David Pérez Brigido from running in an election.

Pérez Brigido was found guilty of domestic violence following ‘repeated abuse’ of his ex-wife, whom he frequently ‘shoved, threw her to the ground, pulled her hair and punched her in the face’.

The Pamplona judge, where Pérez Brigido was resident until just months previously, also found the accused frequently ‘insulted’ and ‘demeaned’ his ex-wife, who was left troubled by post-traumatic stress.

A spokesperson for Vox said the party ‘did not know’ about their top pick for mayor’s background, saying that ‘in Vox, as a party, no case like David’s is tolerated and never will be tolerated’.

The former number-two, Diego del Castillo Gómez-Cambronero, has now been bumped up to the top spot.