MARI LUZ CORTES - Aged 5 years - Huelva (Spain)

lina_gr
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:18 am

28/03/08

Police clash with protesters at Spanish court as suspects in Mari Luz Cortés death arrive

Santiago del Valle García had previously been found guilty of abusing his own daughter and another young girl. The autopsy reports confirmed Mari Luz was suffocated to death, though Santiago claims that it was an accidental homicide [she had a fall down the stairs].

VIDEO Protestors outside the court in Huelva yesterday



Santiago del Valle, the man arrested in connection with the death of five year old Mari Luz Cortés, arrived at the court in Huelva shortly after 5 on Thursday afternoon, where a crowd of some 600 people had been waiting outside since the early hours of the morning. The angry crowd shouted "Asesino!"[murderer] and hurled bottles and stones as the detainees, Santiago and his sister, arrived in police vans. The security fences that were serving as a barrier between the public and the court were used like throwing weapons. The police, who had send to the place several intervention teams, were forced to move against the crowd, with shots to the air and using their batons, trying to keep the order and disband the crowd , who were, besides throwing stones, doing fires in the streets and vandalizing several parked cars.



During the uproar, two Spanish journalists, who were covering the story, were slightly injured. Izidro Huete, a cameraman from Cuatro Television [Channel 4], was hit in the head with a stone and had to be carried to a hospital to receive medical treatment. As well, a journalist from the radio Onda Cero was injured in the arms, in the middle of the crowd clash.

The first one breaking the orders from the police was the grandfather of Mari Luz, Juan José Fernandez, a fact that gave more strength to the protesters. ‘You criminal murderer, you have to pay for what you did! The prison is not enough for you!’ this was one of the various sayings directed to Santiago del Valle the confessed killer of Mari Luz.

Between the screams and pushes, the rage of the relatives and neighbours mixed with a will of provoking chaos by a group of young persons from the El Torréjon district forced the authorities to expand the perimeter of security, closing all the streets that had a connection to the court.

Movie of the Day

09h00 – The hour predicted for the arrival of Santiago and Rosa, his sister at the Court of Huelva. However, at this time they were still coming out from the police station in Cuenca.

17h10 - Two vans – with Santiago and Rosa – arrive at the Huelva Court. Suspects enter through a small side door while the crowd is angry and provoking confusion.

18h20 - The Police charges against the crowd using batons and rubber bullets. The traffic is cut in the surrounding streets to the building of the Court.

24h00 - The tranquillity returns to the area of the Court and the streets are reopened to the traffic. Strong security was maintained in the place, at the time while Santiago was still being heard.

Mari Luz was "touched"

According to the site of the Spanish newspaper ABC, Santiago del Valle, confessed to the police that he "touched" Mari Luz on the day of her death. There are no official confirmations on the details of the confession, however, judicial sources advance that the suspect confessed to be obsessed with the girl. Mari Luz was lured to the house of Santiago with a toy and then he touched the 5 year old girl in the buttocks.

Santiago got rid of the Body

Rosa del Valle was living with the brother Santiago and the his wife, Isabel, in the district El Torrejón up to the date of the disappearance of Mari Luz (13th of January). Rosa is detained by suspicion of having transported the body of the girl in her blue Hyunday. Compromising evidences were found in a wet cardboard that was in the luggage of her car. The neighbourhood in Huelva thinks that she was ‘weird’. They say, for example, that she had the routine of washing her car in the night. After his arrest on Tuesday, Santiago del Valle said he had invited the child into his house and attempted to abuse her, but she struggled and accidentally fell down the stairs and was killed. He also admitted that he had put his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. The post mortem showed that she had died of asphyxiation. Frightened and with fear of being incriminated, he launched Mari Luz body to the river Huelva.

Meanwhile...

It was reported that del Valle had a pending prison term of more than two and a half years for the sexual abuse of his young daughter, who was the same age as Mari Luz when the abuse took place. He was originally sentenced in 2002, and the sentence was confirmed by a higher court at the end of 2005.

It’s understood that his wife, who was released with charges in the Mari Luz investigation, was also sentenced in that previous case, and that the couple tried to blame a gym teacher for the abuse suffered by their daughter.



There was no warrant out for his arrest in connection with the sentence, Europa Press reports, but a Seville court had issued an order in March 2006 to locate his whereabouts after ruling that he should serve the term. Juan José López Garzón, central government delegate for Andalucía, told the news agency that del Valle has been under watch by police since the beginning of the investigation into Mari Luz’s disappearance. National Police have also confirmed that they received no warrant for his arrest, and noted that there was insufficient evidence to charge him when he was originally questioned in the investigation.

Del Valle was sentenced by another court in Seville for abusing a nine year old girl, and received a two year suspended sentence in that case.

Update: Court Sentence

Santiago del Valle García, has been ordered to prison without bail by the judge in the Court of First Instance in Huelva on charges of murder of Mari Luz and and against sexual freedom.. The judge told him that he must also serve the two years and nine month sentence handed down against him in 2006 by the Court of First Instance in Sevilla for abusing his own daughter.



The judge also ordered prison without bail for Rosa del Valle, his sister who had also been arrested along with his wife and a brother. The wife, Isabel García, was released with charges after making her statement to the Instruction judge and is now reported to be staying outside the Huelva province. Santiago and Rosa left the Huelva Court at a quarter to one this morning, bound for the jail in Huelva.

Meanwhile the General Council for Judicial Power (CGPJ), the body which oversees the judiciary in Spain has opened an investigation as to why the alleged killer of Mari Luz had not served a single day in jail, despite two prison sentences against him. The latest was the 2 year 9 month sentence handed down against him by the Court of First Instance in Sevilla for the sexual abuse of his own five year old daughter. There was a second earlier sentence also, for two years in jail, handed down for the sexual abuse of a nine year old girl who he surprised on the stairs of her home, which he also somehow escaped serving.

It appears the official reason was that his ‘whereabouts were unknown' and had also appealed against the second sentence which had allowed him to avoid being placed inside. He had claimed that it was a gymnastics teacher who had abused his daughter, and not him, presenting a fake medical report at the time to support his case.



The court documents from Sevilla at the time make dramatic reading. Público quotes them as saying ‘On several occasions the accused, dropping his trousers, would make his daughter touch his member with her hands, and on other occasions he would masturbate while he touched her genital region. The mother was often present while this took place, and despite the opposition of the child who complained to her father that it hurt, never did anything to stop it taking place’. The court documents note that the mother, Isabel García, has an I.Q. of only 47, and she was clearly under the manipulative influence of her husband. The Sevilla court documents also indicate that Santiago del Valle suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but also that the judge considered that when he abused his daughter he knew exactly what he was doing. The couple’s son and daughter, now aged 9 and 15, are in the care of foster families.

There is also a third case of a 13 year old girl in Gijón, against whom he was handed down a distancing order after he had been chatting to her on the internet and proposed sexual relations. The girl’s mother discovered the plan and informed the police in that case.

The Government Delegate for Andalucía, Juan José López Garzón, commented that it was not for the police or the government to comment on the situation, and he was not going to make a judgement. He called for calm from the local population. However López Garzón did not deny that there was a search and capture order in place against Santiago del Valle since 2006.

It appears that the Police investigators into the Mari Luz case knew nothing of this however, and were unaware that he lived less than 100 metres away from where she disappeared. However the local residents of this tight-knit community did know about Santiago del Valle’s past, and a few hours after Mari Luz vanished they had informed the missing girl’s parents.

El Mundo reports that several people from the neighbourhood, including Mari Luz’s father, Juan José, and some of her uncles, forced their way into Santiago del Valle’s home, taking some papers on the same day that the child had vanished, knocking down the door in search of the youngster. This led the man who is now charged with the child’s murder to call the police for help. The police went to the home and initially thought it was a simple case of breaking and entering, deciding to put off making full enquires until the next day. When they returned, Santiago del Valle and his family had gone, and it was only some time later that police joined the dots in the case and realised that they were dealing with a known paedophile with a previous record.

Sources: Correio da Manhã, Tipically Spanish, El Mundo, Video from SIC Portuguese News Channel

source for the translation http://www.joana-morais.blogspot.com/

karenjane
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:35 am

I'm glad that nasty piece of work is off the streets.

Poor, poor Mari luz, I hope she didn't suffer too much. :cry:

ewe2
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:49 am

I hope his wife is off the streets too. She is almost as bad in my opinion. That little girl had the right to buy a packet of crisps without the threat of abuse, just like Madeleine had the right to sleep in her bed and not be abducted out of it.

People have to know these creeps are living next to them. I find it sickening to think this guy received a "suspended sentence" in Seville.

If I was the judge in Mari's case I would give him another suspended sentence, but one that involved a rope.

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:05 pm

Correio da Manhã

27th March 2008

The McCanns Now Want to question Mari Luz Cortés Killer

Santiago del Valle is the man who has confessed to the police of accidentally killing the five year old girl, Mari Luz Cortés. His brother, sister and wife, Isabel García, are accused of covering the crime, and of being accomplices. The McCanns 'see' another connection to their case.

The parents of Madeleine McCann, after having demanded yesterday to the Portuguese Police to find out if this man as a link to Madeleine disappearance, and in spite of having being told several times before that there's absolutely no connection between the two girls cases. Now they want to question Santiago del Valle García, the man who has been arrested in Spain in connection with the murder of the five year old from Huelva, Mari Luz Cortés, whose body was found earlier this month 54 days after she disappeared. The McCanns, who left Madeleine (almost 4 years old) and the twin brothers (2 years old) alone in the apartment while dining with friends, 120 meters away in the Resort Tapas Bar, say that they want to ask Mari Luz Killer where he was on May 3, last year, the day that Madeleine disappeared.

What has the disappearance of Mari Luz Cortés to do with Madeleine McCann?

The geographical distance between the locations of El Torrejon in Huelva, Spain and Praia da Luz in Lagos, Portugal is of 120 miles/190 Kilometres, about 2 hours drive. Between the disappearances of Madeleine, on the 3rd of May 2007 and the kidnapping of Mari Luz, on the 13th of January 2008 exactly 8 months and 11 days passed. Mari Luz disappeared during the day time when she went to buy some sweets in a kiosk near to her house, in the neighbourhood of El Torrejon where everyone knows everyone. We now know that it was a crime of opportunity, the girl passed by the house of Santiago, a man with previous paedophilia and sexual abuse records, he lured her to his house. The autopsy reports confirmed Mari Luz was suffocated to death, though Santiago claims that it was an accidental homicide [she had a fall down the stairs]. In the case of Madeleine, well... I'll leave you with this small interview in today's Correio da Manhã with former PJ Chief-Inspector and Criminologist Moita Flores, and his opinion article.

“Mari Luz Case is Different from Maddie’s ", says Francisco Moita Flores



What similarities do you find between the cases Mari Luz?

Francisco Moita Flores – There are none to find. The development of this case in Spain simply confirmed the records of the criminal statistics.

How so?

All the known situations of children's kidnapping have resulted in their death. Generally, like in this case, in an accidental murder.

Do you believe that the difference regarding the Madeleine’s case is the non discovery of the body?

It’s hard to say this out loud but this type of crime has not so many peculiarities. Besides the lack of a body, it is necessary to tell the type of access to the child. If Mari Luz was kidnapped in the street, in a public place, in the case of Madeleine only someone with access to the apartment of the McCanns could carry out the kidnapping, which limits the suspects to just about eight or ten persons.

Source for the Translation: http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccanns-now-want-to-question-mari-luz.html

http://tinyurl.com/339lwr

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:08 pm

Correio da Manhã

Opinion article by Francisco Moita Flores:

Maddie and Mari Luz

Mari Luz disappeared from a public area. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents [...] they were exposed to chance

"Every time that a sequence of violent acts occurs, whether homicides, abductions, or terrorist acts, the first exercise that our common sense memory does, is to search for communions and to make analogies that tend to generalistic judgements that puff up one or another solution. When these facts have a strong impact within the media, the level of certainty that is formulated increases even more. It is therefore hardly surprising, that the disappearance of Mari Luz prompted the search for identifications with the Maddie case, leading to the comfortable and opportunistic theory that there are connections between both cases, both being the victims of a sexual predator.

There do not exist. Although close in time, they are absolutely different cases. Beginning with the space where the facts took place. Maddie disappeared from the room where she was sleeping, alongside her siblings, inside the apartment that belonged to her parents, even if only for the duration of their holidays. Mari Luz disappeared from a public space. The time coordinate is also different. The English girl disappeared during the night, the Spanish girl disappeared during the day. The location is also different. Mari Luz disappears in a street of her neighbourhood - and those who know this area in Huelva, know that we are talking about a poor community, of degraded housing or modest construction, which is inhabited by persons with financial difficulties, where the street is used by its inhabitants as a playground. To play on the streets in Torrejon is a socially normal action, there are neighbourhood relationships, the bonds of social mutual recognition are evident. It is normal for a mother to send her child shopping. According to the daily behaviour patterns, it cannot be said that the parents abandoned Mari Luz. That space is the community's territory. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents, in a foreign country, in a quality resort but, due to their short stay, that was strange to them and to their children. They went out to drink while the children were delivered to chance. But within a safe, controlled unit, without space for an abductor to act naturally. The public space is where abductions take place, by excellence. On streets, in shopping areas, on beaches, or when large crowds meet in open air. The private space, the home, is the territory of love, of violence, of tenderness and of death. But this is not where differences end. Mari Luz's parents immediately communicated the case to authorities. The police heard about Maddie long after the English diplomacy and Sky News did. The parents of Mari Luz expose themselves, in their suffering and distress, to the police and to the media. Maddie's parents chose to make emotional appeals but without a coherent explanation about what happened. They brought in a spokesperson to tell the press what it wanted to hear, but themselves, when it was time, refused to talk and left. The organised web never wanted to discuss the case's details. They chose to insult the PJ and the country that gave them shelter.

The truth, the sad truth, is that two children went missing. One, almost certainly, is dead. The other, the authorities still hope to find her alive. I hope they will. Unfortunately, these are not the first cases, and they will not be the last ones. They are cases from our common life. Unfortunately."

Source for the Translation: http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccanns-now-want-to-question-mari-luz.html

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=274434&idCanal=93

tezza
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:09 pm

SOS Madeleine

26.03.2008

Papa Mari Luz asks Justice not to be "deceived"

The father of Mari Luz today urged to justice not to be "deceived" by the presumably killing his daughter, Santiago del Valle Garcia.

At a press conference, Juan Cortés has expressed its fear that the prime suspect in the death of Mari Luz could allege psychiatric problems to deceive the action of Justice, stressing that it does not believe in the thesis' accident.

"He is responsible for a murder. He killed my daughter and he must pay for his crime," said the father of Mari Luz who confirmed that her daughter was actually died a few hours after her disappearance.

"I ask Justice to act decisively to ensure that this does not happen again and that now these people are put in their place," said Juan Cortés that promises to continue to fight for that justice is done, emphasizing he will not "rest" because he is going to need all his strength to accompany the judicial process.

Suspect arrested back on his statements

Santiago Garcia, 52 years, the man who has admitted being the perpetrator of the murder of Mari Luz in Huelva now argues that the child died accidentally.

The presumably murderer was arrested yesterday afternoon in Cuenca where he had just arrived with his wife, with whom he lives in the town of Pajaroncillo, a village of about a hundred people or he had sought refuge after Huelva abandoned the day after the disappearance of Mari Luz.

Since the early hours of the disappearance that Santiago was targeted as the prime suspect because Mari Luz was seen alive for the last time passing in front of his house in the district of El Torrejón, Huelva.

A source of the Specialized Unit and Violent Crime (UDEV), responsible for the arrest, confirmed that the suspect claimed today that Mari Luz "fell" during the fight and died accidentally.

From its precedent for abuse of minors, including her own daughter, the man had already been interrogated and searched his home but police had not found the slightest evidence of the passage of Mari Luz.

merlynsam
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:27 am

EiTB

28/03/2008

Spain admits "breakdown" in the judicial system

A man with two pedophilia convictions was allowed to go free and is now suspected of killing a 5-year-old girl. One of the convictions stemmed from sexual abuse of his own daughter, who was 5 at the time.

http://www.eitb24.com/new/en/B24_92312/life/SPANISH-5-YEAR-OLD-GIRL-MURDERED-Spain-admits-breakdown-in/

merlynsam
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:28 am

EuroNews

28/03 19:25 CET

Spain admits to judical error over pedophile

http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=info&article=477678&lng=1#

merlynsam
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:58 am

Correio da Manha (Google Translation)

March 29, 2008 - 11.00h

By João Mira Godinho / Rui Pando Gomes

Case Mari Luz:
Santiago abused sister for five years

For five years she suffered sexual abuse from her brother. Catalina del Valle Garcia has been the first victim of Santiago, who confessed to the murder of Mari Luz. "Between five and ten years has made me everything, but there was no penetration," she told the CM yesterday afternoon, in the town of Cartaya, 20 km from Huelva, where he currently resides.

'When I finally had the courage to tell my mother, she told me not to tell anything, that no one would believe', continues Catalina, now 35 years old. 'He is a wolf in lamb skin, speaks well with people, but deceives them, he is the devil and does not have forgiveness from God,' she explained.

When she reached the age to oppose the abuses of Santiago, Catalina started to suffer with maltreatment. ' He called me everything, threw me to the ground', she recalls, ' as he could not touch me sexually, he was avenged thus.'

In the last 15 years, Catalina has lost contact with her brother, but she recalled other crimes allegedly committed by Santiago del Valle Garcia. 'He violated a daughter, killed another and violated other children,' she accuses. ' I never let him come close to my children, if he made it, he killed it I ', she guarantees.

For all this, the authorship of the death of Mari Luz by her brother does not surprised her, also it is not strange the linking of a woman to the crimes of Santiago. 'It is a poison, to let you violate the daughter and kill the child,' she says. 'It is bad, it is very bad, a devil', she says about sister-in-law, Isabel, 'there are bad human beings but she does not know anyone. "

Catalina del Valle Garcia acknowledges that at the beginning, she did not 'mistrust' brother. She did not believe that he was behind the disappearance of the girl of five years. 'But when he disappeared thought it had something to do with the case. " When he was contacted by police at a time when we still did not know the whereabouts of Mari Luz, it was almost with certainty that her brother was guilty.

Did she not find it odd that the brother and sister-in-law were the authors of the crime, since the participation of sister, Rosa, surprised Catalina. 'I put their hands in the fire for it', she says, acknowledging that he would have been 'burned'. Rosa, who will have borrowed the car so that the body of the girl was hidden, according Catalina, 'deceived everyone, as much me as the authorities'.

ARREST

Santiago del Valle came out of the Court of Huelva under order of preventive detention without possibility of bail. He will be accused of the crimes of murder and sexual assault of Mari Luz. The sister Rosa is also accused of murder.

UNCLE MADE INQUIRY

The uncle of Mari Luz, Diego Cortés, was the first one to suspect Santiago. On the day of the disappearance he burglarized the door of the suspect, but he did not find his niece. He confronted the criminal and the sister and almost mugged him to obtain a confession. ' I had one hundred percent of certainty, therefore I did not kill it soon ', confessed Diego to the CM. He did not rest and started an investigation and collection of evidence. He obtained documents that disclose that Santiago already had looked at children on the internet.

'GOSTAVA FOR YOU ASK WHY' (Juan José Cortés, father of Mari Luz)

Correio da Manha - You consider that the case is ended?

Juan José Cortés - no, the case will only end when you finish the trial and justice is done. Now we need the court do its work.

-- What I want to happen to Santiago?

-- We need a fair justice, I know that nothing will bring my daughter back, but at least it gives the maximum penalty or change the law and that he is sentenced to life imprisonment.

-- I ask you something?

-- Just like to ask why, he killed my daughter, why not leave her alive.

ASSASSIN EVADED JUSTICE IN TWO SEXUAL CRIMES

Santiago del Valle, the confessed killer of Mari Luz Cortés, managed to evade the Spanish Justice and flee from prison for two offences of sexual abuse, despite having been convicted. Both rulings, issued by the Court of Seville, add up to four years and nine months: two years and nine months refer to the abuse of his own daughter for five years and the other two for having abused a child of nine months.

The first conviction was ordered in 2002 and the second in 2006. None of the two was executed by the judge and Santiago never was to stop to the chain. Yesterday, the judge Rafael Tirado Márquez, who kept the the paedophile in freedom, assumed the judicial failure, but the blame shot up from an official who 'was of low five months without replacement'. The High Council of Justice Spanish order has to investigate the action of the judge in Criminal Court No. 1 of Seville.

BODY HIDDEN AFTER HOURS

A source of the investigation explained to the CM that card found in the car of the sister of Santiago raised suspicions about the involvement of the man in the disappearance of the girl. This suspicion is confirmed by Diego, uncle of Mari Luz, who, two hours after the disappearance, was at the home of the man. At the time, he only found the sister, and the car 'was not on the street', said the CM.

Hours later, he returned to the house. The car was at the door 'but washed. "Also a pair of boots had been washed, when all other shoes were dirty". Diego said the Rosa to show you the bag from the car and then found the card. 'It was all wet,' recalls Diego. Santiago had gone to hide the body of Mari Luz, and then washed the car and the clothes he had used. To transport the body he used a shopping cart that used to transport the tissues and toilet paper that he sold. On that night the cart was empty. The following day, at 07:00 in the morning, Santiago and wife, Isabel, left Huelva without trace. Some days later, the sister of the criminal, Rosa, left the house at the entrance of Plaza de Rosas.

Diego recounted everything to the police who, two days later, on January 15, found the couple in Granada. The two were questioned and then left at liberty, but remained under suspicion.

CHANGE OF ARREST FOR SECURITY

Santiago will be moved from the Central Penitentiary of Huelva (where prisoners are members of ETA) to a more distant one for security reasons. The authorities fear retaliations in the chain.

FIRST NIGHT ISOLATED FROM OTHER PRISONERS

The two authors of the death of Mari Luz spent the first night in prison in an area isolated from other inmates. Santiago and Rosa were under special surveillance because they had been threatened.

FAILURES OPEN DEBATE ON LAW OF ABUSE

The death of Mari Luz is causing a debate on the need to review the law on sexual offences, with judges and magistrates to defend a register of the convicted.

ISABEL INTERNED IN HOSPITAL

The woman Santiago was yesterday admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Seville to comply with a previous conviction for complicity in abuse of daughter

LETTERS FROM WOMEN

Several women responded to advertisements placed in magazines by Santiago. One was sent days after the disappearance.

FIRST TIME IN THE BANK

Yesterday, at 20:30, Juan José Cortés, father of the girl, seated - for the first time since the outset of the case - in the bank of substitutes for his football team, the El Pinzon.

30

According source of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Santiago del Valle Garcia could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for the crime of murder.

http://tinyurl.com/3yw4z5

smokie
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:58 pm

Sunday March 30th

Typically Spanish

Lessons need to be learned, right now

The Mari Luz tragedy has highlighted, all too dramatically, what can go wrong in the justice system here in Spain.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15812.shtml

ewe2
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:34 pm



This photograph should make each one of us angry. The little girl is five year old Mari Luz Cortes….murdered by a man that should never have been outside of a prison cell, let alone anywhere near this innocent little soul.

The pain visible on the faces of her parents should shame us into action on their behalf, and on behalf of all the Mari Luz’s to follow. That photograph is the only way they can now carry their beautiful little daughter and it need not have been this way.

continued.......

http://katiesmith.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/judge-and-fury/

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:03 pm

Enfants Kidnappés

30/03/08

National Shame

It is three hard months since the disappearance of Mari Luz and these last months, which Juan José Cortès and his family have experienced have been especially difficult. As reported by Mari Luz's father himself, it was, "The day my daughter disappeared; the day when I was told that I had to go to the quay (where the body of the little girl was found floating) and now, when I have been told that this Mr Santiago del Valle should have been in prison and not at liberty."

"Who should I ask why all this happened? My daughter should be alive.." In response to the vice-president of the government, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who called on citizens to maintain their confidence in the police in spite of the many errors committed in this case, Juan José Cortès stated: "If the system works, why is my daughter dead?" Juan José Cortès is well aware that the death of his child is the result of much non-accountability in the Head of the Administration of Justice and the State. However, on the question of whether he is going to hire a lawyer and ask if they will compensate him for the harm which these errors have caused to his daughter, to himself and to his family, he said, "This is not the time....Maybe in the future."

Whole life sentence.

The only comfort for Juan José Cortès at this moment, is to ensure that his daughter's murderers pay for what they have done. "That justice is done." When he is asked what would be a fair sentence, he responds quickly: "That my daughter is given back to me, that would be justice! But as that is not possible, then that they never come out of prison!"Mari Luz's father is very clear, he wants the debate on whole life sentence to be re-opened in Spain. He does not understand those who oppose it and states that: "If a man takes away the life of my daughter and he takes mine away for ever, he should pay for ever. This is a preventative solution and not a punishment. There are people who cannot live in society because they could commit the same crime again. Who is to say that if this man comes out of prison in 20 years, he is not going to commit the same crime again?

Remember that Santiago del Valle has committed a whole series of abuse against children, from Seville to Huelva, through Gijon, all while each time fooling the police.

The police accused of having tortured the defendant.

Santiago del Valle testified that the police had tortured him to obtain his confessions. It was for these reasons that he later retracted even to the point of denying that he had been in the company of Mari Luz on the afternoon of January 13th. His sister, Rosa del Valle told the judge that on the afternoon in question Santiago had asked her to take him to Carrefour to run some errands and that is what she did. She took him there, her brother not having a driving licence. The retail centre was closed according to her version, and she took him a bit further to another retail zone which was open and left him there. The police has information which contradicts this witness statement and the judge has deemed it as being valid. The last person to see Mari Luz alive, saw her around 16.40, stopped in front of Del Valle's house.

The reconstruction of events indicates that Rosa drove her brother with the body of Mari Luz in the boot of her car, as far as the estuary and she waited there while he threw the body into the water. They then returned together to the house in Torrejon. Santiago had just had the time to pick up his wife, Isabel Garcia and for the two of them to hastily leave the town. Remember that the three of them were in the house when Santiago brought the child in, promising a game, for the purpose of sexual abuse.

In fact, towards 18.30, before the police arrived on the scene, a group of relatives of the Cortés family had already burst into the house by force and had taken away documents and other property. At that time, the couple had already fled. After Rosa del Valle's statement, the judge signed an arrest warrent for murder, as stipulated in the detention order at the prison. Even though her degree of participation has not been leaked, she could be considered as co-perpetrator of the murder if she participated in an active way in the illegal confinement and/or the abduction; or as complicit in the murder by her silence.

Santiago del Valle, after having denied everything and accused the police of abuse, asked to be heard again, perhaps knowing already what the judge's decision was concerning his sister. In this second statement, he gave up and again admitted, in view of the evidence revealed, the the facts that he had already accepted and signed in Cuenca. He called the child when he saw her alone because he liked her, but she fell down the stairs and died accidentally: he then went to get rid of the body by throwing it into the estuary.

Although the forensic reports are not conclusive about how the child died, given the bad state of the body of Mari Luz, the judge had no doubts and considered the person detained as perpetrator of a murder and sexual assault. She issued a warrant , as in the case of his sister. Both were remanded to the prison in Huelva. In the string of absurdities in this case, the prison has now received Santiago del Valle's admission order for the abuse of his five year-old daughter - two years and nine months detention - which should have been served from March 2006!!! His wife, Isabel Garcia has been admitted to the psychiatric section of Seville prison to serve 15 months for complicity in the context of the abuse committed by her husband on their child. She should also have been imprisoned two years ago.

Translated by Primevera

http://www.kidnapping.be/mariluzcortes/index.html

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:00 pm

Typically Spanish

By m.p. - Mar 30, 2008 - 11:07 PM

Spanish PM telephones father of Mari Luz Cortés to pass on his condolences from one father to another

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15823.shtml

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:01 pm

Typically Spanish

By h.b. - Mar 31, 2008 - 7:14 AM

Junta de Andalucía contradicts the judge at the centre of the Mari Luz controversy

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15826.shtml

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:03 pm

Typically Spanish

By h.b. - Apr 1, 2008 - 3:42 PM

Second judge to be investigated as the fall out from the Mari Luz Cortés case continues

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15854.shtml

merlynsam
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 2:04 pm

Typically Spanish

By h.b. - Apr 3, 2008 - 8:03 AM

Mari Luz Cortés was killed and her body dumped within an hour

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15884.shtml

merlynsam
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:10 am

I am so sorry that these Mass cards have taken so long for me to scan and upload - they arrived back to me last week and I simply lost my forum focus for a while. I did let Tezza know that they had arrived.............it is entirely my fault that I haven't progressed the task.

Mari Luz's Perpetual Mass started over a week ago.

But we are sending these masses in order to bring comfort to the family. I promise I will post today (Friday).

The Perpetual Mass for Mari Luz Cortes (a mass will be said for her every day for Eternity)



The Healing Mass for The Family of Mari Luz (Juan Jose Cortes & Irena Ramirez and family)

Prayer for Healing:

At this time of special need
let us pray
that Jesus the Good Shepherd
will lay his healthy hand
upon you.



Letter accompanying the cards


(My name and address)

Juan Jose Cortes and Irena Ramirez
Asociación Gitana Romano Drom.
Calle de Geranio
21005
Huelva
Spain

Sunday, 30 March 2008



Queridos Sr. y Sñr. Cortes,

Es con gran tristeza que hemos oído las noticias que Mari Luz es no más largo con nosotros.

El foro de ¨Find Madeleine¨ ha rogado para Mari Luz cada día. Hemos rogado para la vuelta de la caja fuerte de Mari Luz a su familia.

Hemos alistado Mari Luz en las masas perpetuas de La sociedad de Misiones Africanas. Los padres santos dirán una masa para su cada día hasta eternidad. Éste es el regalo más grande que podemos ahora dar a Mari Luz.

También hemos organizado las masas curativas para usted y su familia. Usted está pasando con una hora tan trágica y nadie puede tomar su dolor.

Esperamos que usted recolecte una cierta fuerza de saber que hay la gente alrededor del mundo que le mantiene sus pensamientos y rezos.

Enviamos nuestro amor de todos los miembros del foro de Find Madeleine,

(My name)

http://www.freeforums.in/phpbb/index.php?mforum=detectives

TO realisticsupporter - WITH GRATEFUL THANKS FOR THE TRANSLATION. FROM ALL MEMBERS OF THE FIND MADELEINE FORUM

Without your help we could not have achieved this task.



Our Letter in English:

Dear Mr and Mrs Cortes

It is with great sadness that we have heard the news that Mari Luz is no longer with us.

The 'Find Madeleine Forum' has prayed for Mari Luz each day. We have prayed for Mari Luz's safe return to her family.

We have enrolled Mari Luz in the Perpetual Masses of the Society of African Missions. The holy fathers will say a mass for her every day until eternity. This is the greatest gift that we can give to Mari Luz now.

We have also organised healing masses for you and your family. You are going through such a tragic time and nobody can take your pain. We hope that you will gather some strength from knowing that there are people around the world who keep you in their thoughts and prayers.

We send our love.

From:

All members of the Find Madeleine Forum

http://www.freeforums.in/phpbb/index.php?mforum=detectives

pam supportfromireland
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:37 am

That is so lovely Merly as I do think of the family daily.

tezza
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:25 am

A lovely gift from us to the family.
Thank you Merly for doing this for us.

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:28 am

Thanks Merly!

Very thoughtful!

merlynsam
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:46 pm

Just to confirm that I did post the Mass cards to Mari Luz's family.

ewe2
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:56 pm

Thanks Merly. A lovely card.

lin200
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 6:39 pm

Thanks Merly for everything you do.

vovvan
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:40 pm

Thanks Merly for the mass card. xxx

lina_gr
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 11:45 pm

Thank you Merly for sending this card! It's so touching.
Thanks also to realisticsuporter for helping Merly with the translation.