“Nadia” parents accused of having sex in same bed as ill daughter

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English in Action with Michael Robinson

The judge overseeing the fraud investigation has decided to expand the charges after studying images of a sexual nature found by police on a pen drive at the home of Fernando Blanco and his wife Marga Garau. Some photographs show the couple having sex while their daughter is lying next to them, whereas others show the naked child in various positions.

In a case that has received wide media attention in Spain, Blanco and Garau were arrested in December on suspicion of fraudulently raising money through media campaigns to pay for what they said were cutting-edge treatments for their 11-year-old daughter Nadia Nerea, who suffers from trichothiodystrophy (TTD), a rare disease that can delay development and lead to significant intellectual disability and recurring infections.

Nadia’s father has been in custody since December, while he is investigated for fraud

The possibility that the campaigns were a scam was uncovered by EL PAÍS and a number of other media outlets, which revealed inconsistencies in Blanco’s story. Original reports put the sum of money obtained by Blanco and his wife for their daughter’s treatments at around €300,000 – including €153,000 in just four days during a recent publicity campaign – but police in Spain’s Catalonia region later said the figure was closer to €918,000.

Last week, police found a pen drive with the photographs of Blanco and Garau having sex in the same bed as their daughter. The Catalan regional police advised the judge that the photos could be evidence of “possession of child pornography,” as well as several other offenses.

The parents were questioned by the judge and reportedly told him that their daughter was asleep and “unaware” of what was going on.

The judge has questioned this explanation, pointing out that in the photographs, Nadia is “a few centimeters” from the parents and “on the same mattress.” The television is also on. In the photographs “it can be seen that the child’s feet appear in different positions.”

“Either she was awake,” says the judge in his writ, “or she woke up while the parents were having intimate relations.” The sexual relations are so explicit, including images of different “postures, rapid movement, close-ups of genitals, felatio and the use of flash,” that the child, despite her medical condition, must have known what was happening.

In a second group of nine photographs, Nadia appears naked in “different positions”

In a second group of nine photographs, Nadia appears naked in “different positions.” Blanco and Garau told the judge that these images had two purposes: to monitor the impact of her illness on her skin, as well as to portray her “funny gestures.”

The judge responded by saying that if the parents wanted to monitor the impact of the disease on Nadia’s skin they should have taken “detailed” photographs, and not images of her naked body in which it is “impossible” to identify ailments.

The writ points out that Nadia is naked in all the images, and on occasion “lying on the sofa with a hand over her genitals,” and in another, with “her legs open showing her genitals.”

The judge added that the location of the photographs, their context and the lack of any other reasonable explanation leads him to think there are “serious suspicions” that Blanco and Garau committed exhibitionism and sexual provocation.

Nadia’s father has been in custody since December while he is investigated for fraud. The judge has set a civil bond for his release of €1.2 million. Her mother, meanwhile, has had her custody of the child suspended.

Wiretaps of conversations between the couple show Blanco was considering escape just hours before the Catalan regional police located and arrested him on December 7 in La Seu d’Urgell.

English version by Nick Lyne.