Trial by Community and a Family in Pain

When the news broke on Friday of the death a three year old neighbourhood girl, supposedly from child abuse inflicted by her step-father, I was as quick as the next person to believe in his guilt. Like the other mothers standing around, I wondered how this atrocity could happen in our community, to a child that went to the same school as my own, and yet we noticed nothing wrong?

I didn’t stop to consider what evidence had been gathered against 25 year old, Diego Pastrana Vieco, I only knew that the safest place for him to be on Friday was in the hands of the police because there is nothing more vindictive than a mob of mothers looking for blood revenge.

As it happens, the poor man not only had to suffer the pain of the death of a loved one, he also had to defend himself against the most despicable charges that it is possible to bring. The child Aitana’s mother and natural father stood up for Diego Vieco and said he had never harmed her in any way.  At a time when the shock and pain of losing their daughter had not even sunk in, they were at the police station fighting on Diego’s behalf.

How did this horrible story happen? Aitana fell from a swing and banged her head.  She was taken to the children’s clinic in El Fraile but was not sent for an x-ray from there. A few days later she went into cardiac arrest and Diego took her into El Mahon where they treated her and found marks which they thought to be suspicious, possible indicating child abuse and sexual assault.

Aitana died in the early hours of Friday morning and forensic examination confirmed the report by Canadalaria that there had been no sexual assault and no child abuse. Burn marks on her back were likely caused by an allergic reaction to cream and any bruises and scratches likely attributed to the fall that killed her.

Diego Pasterna Vieco’s lawyer has indicated that there may be legal action taken. There is no doubt that the system failed somewhere and what happened to Diego Vieco is something you would not wish upon your worst enemy – but I wonder if the doctors at Mahon are totally to blame.

In cases where a doctor finds marks on a child that may be suspicious he surely has a duty to bring the matter up with the relevant authorities. God knows, we would fall upon them and rip their reputations to tatters if they were to fail in this duty and a child that had passed through their hands were to die of abuse shortly thereafter.

But kids attract scratches, cut and bruises like honey attracts bees. I imagine there must be many more suspicious marks on kids than there are actual cases of child abuse. Surely, there must be regulations in place to protect the anonymity of families or individuals who are under investigation at least until such times as charges are to be brought?

That’s where the system failed this young man and the family of Aitana. Instead of the community pulling together to support a family in its bereavement, it turned instead into an angry mob fuelled by ugly whispers that blew like wildfire through the school, passed from child to child, child to parent, parent to parent.

As one of the parents that stood there in shock last Friday, I have learned a lesson that I will never forget. No matter how vicious the rumour, or ugly the accusation,  it is important to hold tight to the maxim of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.