The young man who attacked Rajoy in 2015 alleges psychological disturbance to avoid going to prison for trying to kill a journalist

The Pontevedra AVF, Capiknown because in 2015 he attacked Mariano Rajoy in Pontevedra, asks that the full defense of mental alteration be applied to him so as not to go to jail for an attempted murder of a journalist. The fourth section of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra has left this trial for sentencing, which was held throughout the morning of this Thursday. The accused has only responded to his lawyer’s questions and has assured that his intention was not to kill the editor, whom he did not know at all, but that his action was directed “against the press in general” for what he considers a media harassment suffered since the episode with the former president of the Government. “I wanted them to leave me alone with the publications.” “I wanted to dissuade journalists and make myself respected,” he said, Europa Press reports.

That day, July 14, 2023, he had already addressed the delegation of the Pontevedra Newspaperwhich is near his house, and around 1:40 p.m. he went to the offices of The Voice of Galicia. “I felt very frustrated because I have been suffering from media harassment for years,” he said, adding that he lost “his mind.” “I had no intention, I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” added this young man who, as he recalled, has been under psychiatric treatment for many years, who tried to commit suicide seven times and that both on the day of the attack and the day before, according to He insisted, he had consumed cocaine and alcohol.

According to him, when he entered the facilities of The Voice of Galicia He told an administrator that he was the one who “hit Rajoy” and, immediately afterwards, he began “breaking everything, computers, screens.” She ran away. The accused has indicated that later a journalist who was in the newsroom appeared and “pounced on me and then ran away,” he stated. Furthermore, he has admitted that he hit him with a rolling pin but maintains that it was the journalist who jumped on him to snatch the knife from him. He has also said he does not remember well the moment of arrest by the police. The defendant appeared very nervous in the courtroom and it was even necessary to interrupt the trial for several minutes.

The prosecutor assures that he is the author of a crime of attempted murder, for which he requests eight years in prison, seven of supervised release and ten of prohibition from approaching and communicating with his victim. In addition, he is charged with a crime of damage for having destroyed ten computer monitors and a television valued at 2,221 euros, for which he is asked for a fine of 1,690 euros, and another crime of resistance for opposing arrest by the National Police for those requesting 4,140 euros. During the arrest, one officer was injured.

For his part, the defense lawyer requests that a complete defense for mental alteration be applied to the accused or, alternatively, a crime of aggravated injuries with an incomplete defense for mental alteration. In any case, request admission to a specialized psychiatric center. The mother of the accused has also requested it: “I want my son to be cured. He is 26 years old, you can still do something, but if you don’t go to a center, you can’t do anything.” Likewise, the lawyers of the private accusations who exercise The Voice of Galicia and the injured police officer agree in pointing out the existence of an incomplete defense.

For her part, the victim has declared that she was protected behind a screen and explained that that day she was at the back of the newsroom when she heard “a crash” that she interpreted as someone having fallen down the stairs. He saw his partner run away and met the aggressor, who began to attack him. “First he lifted a stick” – which turned out to be a rolling pin – “I covered myself with my arm, leaned back and saw that he took a knife out of his waist,” he recalled. Immediately, according to the victim’s story, the defendant took out a kitchen knife, approximately 18 centimeters, and stabbed him repeatedly, hitting him on one occasion in the chest, hands and arm.

“The image I have is like the one in the movie Psychosis“, the editor noted, “he directed the knife anywhere” until, at a given moment, “he took a step back, I saw a gap and I ran away.” Blood tests rule out that the accused had consumed cocaine on the day of the events. The forensic experts speak of “dissocial disorder” and polytoxic harmful consumption and specified that he has “problems in the ability to control impulses.”

Criminal history

This attack on the journalist occurred in the same week in which the defendant was sentenced with his consent in the Criminal Court 1 of Ourense for an altercation in a bar in December 2020. He hit a man in the head and said “ You are all going to die” after they asked him to leave the premises for saying slogans in favor of ETA.

This young man’s criminal history also shows that in 2019, an extrajudicial agreement allowed him to be acquitted of a crime of minor injuries for having attacked the provincial coordinator of Vox in Pontevedra, Juan Manuel Rosales, in March of that year. On the day of the trial, he met his victim in court, acknowledged what he did and asked for her forgiveness. When the accused attacked Rajoy, he was a minor and was sentenced to two years of confinement in a closed juvenile center, which he served entirely in Monte Ledo (Ourense).