Spanish authorities reopen Dutchman’s rape case

The authorities in Spain are looking into a possible miscarriage of justice in which a Dutch national was jailed for 15 years for three violent rapes.

RTL news reports that Romano van der Dussen, who was jailed for the rapes in the resort of Fuengirola 11 years ago, may have been mistaken for a British serial rapist. Van der Dussen was arrested after two of the victims and several eye witnesses said he was the perpetrator.

However, Spanish media now report that back in 2007 there were claims  DNA found at the scene was not his and that footprints did not match.

Murder

The DNA is said to come from a British national named Mark Philip Dixie who is now in jail for murder. Britain has been asked to supply a sample of Dixie’s DNA for comparison, RTL says.

Van der Dussen has not been brought back to the Netherlands to serve his sentence because ‘he lived in Spain at the time of his arrest,’ RTL quotes the Dutch foreign affairs ministry as saying.

He told the Volkskrant in an interview in 2011 that his life in the Spanish jail was hell.

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