¡®El Chicle,¡¯ killer of Madrid teenager Diana Quer, given life sentence
Jos¨¦ Enrique Abu¨ªn Gey has also been ordered by a provincial court in Galicia to pay thousands of euros in compensation to the family of the victim, who went missing in 2016
The provincial court of A Coru?a in Spain¡¯s northwestern Galicia region today sentenced Jos¨¦ Enrique Abu¨ªn Gey to the Spanish equivalent of life imprisonment for the murder of Madrid teenager Diana Quer. After an 11-day trial and three-and-a-half days of deliberation, on November 30 a jury found Abu¨ªn ¨C better known by the nickname ¡°El Chicle¡± ¨C guilty of murder, sexual assault, and abduction.
Quer was 18 years old and spending her summer vacation in the Galician town of A Pobra de Carami?al with her family when she went missing on the night of August 21, 2016, as she was walking home alone during the local fiestas.
Abu¨ªn had been a main suspect in the Diana Quer investigation, but the case had been shelved in April of last year for lack of conclusive evidence. The case was reopened after Abu¨ªn was arrested in December 2017 for assaulting another young woman. The physical description provided by the victim led investigators to Abu¨ªn.
Following his arrest, Abu¨ªn confessed to killing Quer and led the police to her body, which he had disposed of at the bottom of a well inside an abandoned warehouse in Rianxo, a town in the northwestern region of Galicia. Despite initially confessing that he had strangled her after trying to rape her, Abu¨ªn later claimed that he had accidentally hit her with his car.
After the jury found Abu¨ªn guilty, it was up to Judge ?ngel Pant¨ªn of the A Coru?a provincial court to decide whether to sentence Abu¨ªn to permanent reviewable prison, the equivalent under Spanish law of a life sentence.
Abu¨ªn had been a main suspect in the Diana Quer investigation, but the case had been shelved? for lack of conclusive evidence
The court has also banned El Chicle from coming within a thousand meters of the victim¡¯s parents or sister, as well as prohibiting him from any kind of communication with Quer¡¯s family during his sentence.
Abu¨ªn has also been ordered to pay Quer¡¯s parents compensation of €130,000 each, and the sum of €40,000 to his sister.
Quer¡¯s disappearance in 2016 triggered a massive search operation that yielded no results. The teen¡¯s family was subjected to intense public scrutiny by the Spanish media, which dedicated extensive coverage to stories of family fights and reports by people claiming to have seen the young woman anywhere from Spain to Romania.
English version by Melissa Kitson and Simon Hunter.
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Jury finds ¡®El Chicle¡¯ guilty of murdering teenager Diana Quer
