Man jailed in Tenerife for homophobic abuse of neighbours
The Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man to six months in prison for repeatedly directing homophobic insults at his neighbours over a four-year period. The court ruled that his actions constituted a crime against moral integrity, as the remarks were intended to humiliate and degrade the victims.
In addition to the prison sentence, the man has been ordered to pay each of the two victims €3,000 in compensation for moral damages.
He has also been banned from communicating with or approaching the couple, who live in the same building, for a period of 18 months.
The case relates to incidents that took place between 2016 and 2020. The accused, who lived in a flat opposite the victims’ apartment and separated only by a small internal courtyard, began hurling repeated insults after disputes arose over noise and inconvenience caused by building work and parties.
The court heard that he persistently used offensive expressions with negative connotations about the couple’s sexual orientation, in a public and humiliating way.
However, the judges concluded that the man’s behaviour was not motivated by discriminatory intent, but rather by ongoing neighbour disputes. Even so, they determined that his words were a deliberate attempt to undermine the dignity of the couple.
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