Simon Hunter
THE CIVIL Guard has arrested a man after he allegedly held a 24-year-old German national against her will and sexually assaulted her. The victim was making the pilgrimage along Spain’s world-famous Camino de Santiago route in La Rioja region when the incident took place.
According to a statement released by the police force, the woman had completed a stage of the walk but was unable to find a place to stay.
The suspect is then alleged to have offered her the chance to stay in his home, but once she was inside he is accused of holding her against her will and sexually assaulting her.
The suspect is 48 years old and a resident in the municipality of Nájera, where the arrest took place.
According to the victim, once she was in his home the man held her down against her will, groping her and trying to kiss her. She was eventually able to raise the alarm by shouting and fled the scene.
She raised the alarm with the authorities, who were able to locate and arrest the suspect just hours later.
The Camino de Santiago, which is known in English as the Way of Saint James, is a network of pilgrimage routes in northern Spain that lead to the shrine of the apostle James in the Cathedral in Galicia’s Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.
The route attracts tens of thousands of hikers and cyclists every year, and is one of the world’s most-popular long-distance walks.
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