A man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually abusing a child and also transmitting a disease to him, causing serious harm to his health. The sentence was handed down after an oral trial concluded today in the courts of Santa Fe. According to a report from the Santa Fe Public Prosecutor's Office, accessed by the Argentine News Agency, the case involves Marcelo Rubén Ruiz, 51. The criminal investigation was led by prosecutor Matías Broggi, while prosecutor Laura Gerard represented the Public Prosecutor's Office during the trial. The crime was committed in Santo Tomé (La Capital department), and the sentence was issued by Judge Susana Luna during an oral trial held in the courts of Santa Fe. Upon learning of the verdict, Gerard stated that 'the magistrate considered the criminal attribution proven and condemned Ruiz for the criminal qualification and the amount of the penalty that we had requested in our arguments'. Likewise, the prosecutor specified: 'From the Public Prosecutor's Office, we carry out articulated work with the Secretariat for the Rights of Childhood, Adolescence and Family of the province, the Local Service for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Childhood of Santo Tomé, and the SAMCo of that city, in order to protect the rights of the child who suffered the abuse, provide comprehensive containment for him, and clarify what had happened'. The Abuse Gerard pointed out that 'the condemned committed the abuse in 2022, when the victim was in primary school', and clarified that 'the man was a neighbor and friend of the child's family'. 'The criminal act was in the child's home, on an occasion when Ruiz was left in charge of caring for him while they were alone in a room in the house,' stated the official from the Public Prosecutor's Office.
