Comprehensive Sexual Violence Victim Support

First 72-Hour Protocol

First 72 hours after sexual aggression are critical both from probative viewpoint (biological evidence) and emotional (retraumatization risk from institutional mismanagement). Our protocol activates: immediate hospital accompaniment with lawyer presence; biological evidence preservation through forensic gynecological kit; coordinated police complaint with legal presence; derivation to specialized psychology from first moment.

Expert Coordination

We coordinate with experts selected by specialty: forensic gynecological doctor for examination and samples; trauma-specialized forensic psychologist for impact evaluation, testimony credibility and moral damage quantification; IT expert when there is digital component (chemical submission, deepfakes, sextortion, cyberbullying).

Legal Framework

LO 10/2022 (only yes is yes) modified sexual liberty criminal regime centering type on consent: there is no consent if not freely expressed through acts externalizing will. Victim's Statute (Law 4/2015) guarantees reinforced procedural rights: avoid visual contact with aggressor, separate trial room, unique audiovisual declaration (Cámara Gesell).

Private Prosecution

Our private prosecution in these cases operates with three lines: technical impulse — proposal of specific diligences; procedural protection — request of Statute measures, especially unique audiovisual declaration; criminal qualification — request of adequate sentence to specific type under LO 10/2022 with applicable aggravations.

Compensation

Civil claim articulates: moral damage (expert quantified and by jurisprudential baremes), medical expenses already incurred and future, psychological and treatment expenses, lucrum cessans, costs. When responsible insolvent, advise on State economic aid (Law 35/1995 on aids to violent crime and sexual liberty victims).

Procedural steps and deadlines for activating integrated support

Integrated support does not arise from a single act but from a sequence that is best activated from the first contact with the system. The victim may approach the police, the duty court, the Public Prosecutor or a Victim Support Office, and at any of those entry points the Victims' Statute (Law 4/2015) requires an individual assessment of their circumstances to determine which protective measures and information channels apply. That assessment should, where possible, precede the taking of the statement, precisely so that it can be conducted without further harm.

Acting promptly matters because some rights are tied to specific procedural moments: the formal offer of actions under Article 109 of the Criminal Procedure Act, the appointment of a lawyer and court agent to appear as a private prosecution, or the request for protective interim measures that the investigating court may order in the first steps. Appearing as a party allows the victim to propose evidence, take part in the questioning and challenge decisions that affect them. Although the private prosecution may join while the intermediate stage remains open, delaying it reduces the ability to shape the investigation, which is where the evidential material for trial is fixed.

Requirements and standard: victim status, needs assessment and pre-constituted evidence

The system of safeguards requires neither a prior conviction nor even a final charge: victim status is recognised from the moment the facts are attributed, and the Statute extends certain rights to indirect victims and to dependants. The central operative requirement is the individual assessment of protection needs, which weighs the nature of the offence, the victim's personal situation and the risk of secondary, repeat or retaliatory victimisation. In the field of sexual violence, Organic Law 10/2022 reinforces this standard with the principle of avoiding any unnecessary contact with the person under investigation and limiting repeated examinations.

A key instrument is the pre-constituted evidence of Article 449 bis and following of the Criminal Procedure Act, which allows the statement to be documented with full guarantees of cross-examination so that it need not be repeated at trial, especially where the victim is a minor or a person with a disability requiring special protection. The standard here is not evidential in the strict sense but procedural: it is about establishing the need for protection and arranging the statement so that its validity is not compromised. Protecting the victim's interests means verifying that the statement is taken with psychological assistance, without prohibited confrontations and, where appropriate, through technical means that avoid visual confrontation.

Practical strategy: appearance, protective measures and preventing secondary victimisation

The strategy rests on three complementary pillars. The first is early appearance as a private prosecution, which turns the victim into a full party: this gives access to the case file, allows investigative steps to be proposed, enables participation in the questioning of the person under investigation, and preserves the right to appeal. The second is the orderly request for protective measures during the investigation, from restraining orders and bans on communication to courtroom safeguards that prevent any encounter with the person being investigated, all underpinned by the individual needs assessment.

The third pillar is the active prevention of secondary victimisation, which the legal team must watch at every milestone: avoiding repeated statements, requesting a suitable room, seeking pre-constituted evidence where its conditions are met, and ensuring that information about the proceedings reaches the victim in a comprehensible form and in their language where necessary. Coordination with the Victim Support Office and specialised care resources allows psychological and social accompaniment to run alongside the criminal process. On reparation, it is advisable to quantify and document the harm early in order to bring the civil claim within the criminal proceedings or to expressly reserve it for the civil jurisdiction.

Rights at stake, competent body and interplay with other procedures

The rights at stake are those the Victims' Statute organises into four blocks: information, protection, participation in the process and reparation. To these, Organic Law 10/2022 adds the right to specialised integrated support and the provision of care services available on a permanent basis. The right to free legal aid is recognised regardless of proof of means in the cases provided by law, which makes effective appearance easier. The victim also retains the right to be informed of the state of the case, of decisions on the personal situation of the person under investigation and, where applicable, of a decision to dismiss, which they may contest by appeal.

Objective jurisdiction lies, depending on the classification and applicable regime, with the investigating court and, where its legal conditions are met, with bodies specialised in violence against women, without prejudice to trial before the sentencing court. Against the court's decisions, the remedies of reconsideration and appeal are available under the terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, and the victim who has appeared has standing to lodge them. The criminal procedure may also interact with protective measures of a civil or integrated-protection nature, with proceedings in the social or administrative jurisdiction and with the reparation mechanisms provided in specific legislation, which calls for a coordinated view so that no avenue weakens the others.