Ben Pawlowski
A ‘LARGE number’ of sexual predators have been allowed to roam the streets of Spain freely after a data glitch on electronic tags prevented judicial authorities from keeping tabs on the location of offenders convicted of sexual abuse, it has been revealed.
The revelation has sparked a public outcry with growing calls for the resignation of equality minister Ana Redondo, with opposition parties claiming that Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist-led government failed to heed warnings about potential flaws in the system made over a year ago.
But Redondo dismissed concerns as ‘alarmist’, adding: “The bracelets have worked at all times, there is no failure.”
Despite throwing her support behind the current system, Redondo said on Monday that a new tender would be issued in the coming months for a new service provider to ensure information gathered on electronic tags is protected by stronger safeguards.
According to Spanish prosecutors, a significant number of cases have collapsed due to the failure, endangering the more than 4,500 women in Spain who are protected under law by restraining orders.
Judges and police unions say repeated malfunctions in the tags led to the loss of crucial data, undermining cases put forward by prosecutors and letting would-be offenders off the hook.
According to insiders, errors in the system ranged from false alarms to low battery levels or faulty geolocation, with the devices’ GPS signal prone to dropping in rural areas where coverage was patchy.
In September 2024, a supervisor at a control centre told staff to close ‘low battery’ alerts, bypassing official protocol.
Workers say the move meant hundreds of alerts went unanswered.
The episode revives memories of Pedro Sanchez’s botched 2022 sexual consent law, which inadvertently reduced sentences for more than 1,200 convicted sex offenders.
Femicide – the killing of women and girls because of their gender – is a significant problem in Spain.
Government figures show that 28 women have been murdered by current or former partners so far this year.
In total, 1,322 women have been killed since records began in 2003.
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