The judge in charge of Palma’s Court of Instruction number 2, acting as on-call judge, has ordered the man arrested for setting fire to his house in the Palma neighbourhood of s’Hostalot with his wife and son inside to be placed in provisional prison without bail. The man was arrested by the National Police as the alleged perpetrator of a crime of domestic abuse, arson and damage in the context of gender violence.
The incident occurred at around 5:00 p.m. last Thursday. Apparently, the man was at home with his minor son, when the latter became alarmed when he saw his father nervous and saying that he was going to do something crazy, so he called his maternal uncle and his mother, who was working at the time.
After the call from the minor, the mother appeared at the house, started a conversation with her partner, agreeing to end the relationship and sell the house. The man then went outside the family home, grabbed a can of gasoline and poured the liquid on the woman’s belongings, setting them on fire, which she luckily managed to put out with a bucket of water.
The man then took another jerry can and allegedly poured petrol on some rooms in the house, setting them on fire with a lighter. The woman tried again to put out the fire by grabbing a hose, but this time, due to the smoke and high temperatures, she was unable to put it out.
After all the above, the woman and her son got into the vehicle belonging to the woman. The man then picked up a piece of tile, apparently telling the woman that she was also going to lose her car, hitting the vehicle several times causing damage.
The man finally left the scene, at which point the woman’s brother appeared, who had called the emergency services, closing the doors of other rooms in the house to try to prevent the fire from spreading.
Later, however, the man tried to return to the building with a can of more gasoline, which was prevented by the victim’s brother, and the two struggled. Several neighbors also tried to put out the fire with hoses, one of them managed to remove a can of gasoline, when a local police patrol appeared and, almost simultaneously, a national police patrol and two fire brigades that put out the fire.
The officers spoke to the woman and her brother, who explained what had happened. The officers then arrested the man, of Spanish origin, as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of mistreatment, arson and damage in the context of gender violence.
The National Police’s Family and Women Care Unit (UFAM) took charge of the investigation, with the agents finding out that there were no previous complaints and that the man had been involved in some incident that the family understood was to draw attention, apparently, to the couple’s proposal to break up.
Investigations determined that days before the man had threatened the woman with leaving her with nothing, even setting fire to her clothes, but the victim managed to put out the flames and the man calmed down.
Investigators carried out numerous investigations and obtained video evidence that captured part of the events.
Source: www.eldiario.es
