Mother sets fire to daughter's rapist
By: Agencies
June 26, 2005

London: Taking the law in her own hands, a Spanish mother set afire a man who raped her teenaged daughter and allegedly taunted her about the assault, a report here said today.

The rapist Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, who later succumbed to injuries, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejuzar, 50 km south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca.

While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out: "How's your daughter?" before heading into a crowded bar, The Sunday Telegraph reported today.

Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out.

The woman fled to Alicante, where she was arrested the same evening. When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted "Bravo!" and "Well done!" the newspaper reported.

A judge ordered her to be held in prison and undergo psychiatric tests, provoking anger from friends and neighbours, who have set up a petition calling for her release.

Soriano suffered 60 per cent burns in the attack on June 13 and later succumbed to injuries