Overview
- Courts in Santa Fe province handed down two convictions this week with a 61-year-old grandfather sentenced to nine years for aggravated sexual abuse of his granddaughter and a 23-year-old man sentenced to six years and eight months for abusing a girl in his environment.
- The Santo Tomé case, tried in Santa Fe, involved repeated abuses at a home in barrio Las Vegas between 2022 and last year and included threats and psychological manipulation by the accused to stop the child from speaking.
- The Calchaquí conviction followed a school disclosure in August 2024 that led to a formal complaint, a Cámara Gesell forensic interview and investigative steps that prosecutors say established the 23-year-old's responsibility.
- Both cases used initials to protect victims' identities and were prosecuted by the Ministerio Público de la Acusación; judges set the penalties but prosecutors are awaiting the judges' written fundamentos to assess appeals or other actions.
- The rulings highlight how school reporting and forensic interviews can trigger investigations, how intrafamilial and proximate perpetrators use coercion to delay disclosure, and how sentences close to statutory minima under Article 119 may shape follow-up legal decisions.