News, March 2009

News theme: The Mari Luz murder case

The story of the tragic murder of Mari Luz, a five-year-old girl of Evangelical parents killed by a paedophile in January, 2008, has been turned into a TV mini-series entitled ´Days without Luz´ (as well as being the little girl´s name, the word means ´light´). This tragic story has filled not only evangelical news bulletins, like Protestante Digital, but also mainline news media, provoking a major review of the judicial system. We attempt to bring some understanding.

Mari Luz Cortés, 5 year old daughter of a gypsy pastor in Huelva, went missing on Sunday, 13th of January, 2008. She just nipped out to the sweet kiosk in the street for a packet of crisps. Police were searching for her for over a month. Huelva is just across the border from the Algarve, where British girl Madeleine McCann went missing in May, 2007. Could there be a link? No one dared say, until eventually a local man, Santiago del Valle was arrested on 31st March and the body discovered. Little Mari Luz had been alive only a few minutes after her abduction by a man who, by rights, should have been well and truly locked up for molesting children before. Her father, Juan José Cortés, a gypsy pastor, immediately changed his nationwide search into a campaign for justice. The revelations about Spain's judicial system being at the end of its tether were compounded by particular problems at the court which should have ordered del Valle's imprisonment and, for a time, a strike in several regions by justice workers calling for better pay for their 'terrible' jobs.
It turns out, however, that while they may not be so well paid, court workers are employed to work short hours and have lifetime job security. Neither the public, nor even the government have been impressed by the situation. This has been compounded by a small fine for the responsible judge and a much larger punishment for the court secretary.
New revelations have come up week by week showing how poorly the Spanish judicial system is, based still on 19th century laws, which base decisions not on verbal evidence so much as on written reports.
Juan José Cortés's campaign has included a nationwide petition for justice and a change in the law concerning the fate of paedophiles. One might feel that this pastor has not shown a 'christian' degree of forgiveness, but at the same time he has shown the determination to see this case brings justice to the judicial system and hope for future parents.
On 19th November, Santiago del Valle was in court for a different, earlier case. He confessed that his fascination for little girls began when his own two year-old daughter had sadly died, causing him a personality change. We suspect that the case will run on for some time more.

The 2-part film, which was shown on 25th January '09, made under the supervision of Cortés, is sensitive to the concern of the family and reasonably represented the agony and search process. neither the murder, nor the moments of greatest grief will be shown.

The state of the judicial system has been deplorable for many years, but the Mari-Luz case has brought many issues out into the open. Finally, on 18th february, '09 the judges went out on strike, following the lead of their employees. Read the BBC report.