Spain's Supreme Court has sentenced the five members of a group that called itself La Manada ("the wolf pack") to 15 years in prison each for attacking a young woman during a festival in Pamplona in 2016. Within minutes of the reviewed verdict being made public, the five men had been arrested.
The high court has overturned the controversial original sentence which had found them guilty of sexual abuse but not rape, confirming they had committed the more serious crime. It thus accepted appeals from the public prosecution service, the victim and the private prosecutions in the case brought by Pamplona city council and the government of Navarre.
The decision was announced after over two hours' deliberation following the public hearing in which the five judges listened to arguments from the prosecution parties and the defence.
In the original verdict, José Ángel Prenda, Antonio Manuel Guerrero, Jesús Escudero, Ángel Pozas and Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo were sentenced to 9 years in prison each by the Provincial Audience, a decision later upheld by the High Court of Justice of Navarre.
Besides the sentences for rape, the Supreme Court has given Guerrero an additional two years in jail for a crime of robbery with intimidation for having stolen their victim's mobile phone.
The Supreme Court's decision on this matter is now final and the five members of the "wolf pack" have no option to appeal.