Spain: Two cis women imprison, torture and murder a man in his own home

Via El Pais (translation by the OII’s founder, Curtis Hinkle), this report is a rare example of the abuses that can be inflicted on trans men by cis women; in this case two cis women who imprisoned a trans man in his own home and, over a nine month period, tortured and eventually murdered him.

In 2006 the man, Roberto González Onrubia, had invited two cis women, Dolores de los Reyes Navarro and Ainhoa Nogales Bergantiños, to stay at his house. Prior to that, the cis women had “lived in a shack” in poverty. The cis women proceeded to take advantage of Mr Onrubia’s kindness, taking money without repaying it, and the arrangement quickly became abusive towards Mr Onrubia. By the following year, 2007, the situation had become untenable for Mr Onrubia and he asked the cis women to leave. They refused and began a campaign of abuse against him with the aim of making it impossible for Mr Onrubia to evict them.

In March the imprisonment began. “They changed the lock of the apartment without giving him a copy.” “They also seized his mobile phone and started answering all the calls received,” and “kept the blinds closed in the room where he was sleeping, so he could not ask for help from neighbors.”

In May, “they began to sell all property that was in his home, such as jewelry and his mother’s coats, watches and a stamp collection he had from his father.” Also by that time “they began to hit Roberto often”. The next step in the looting came later, when they put the victims apartment on sale, and kept the deposit. At the same time, the abuse and malnourishment continued. At that time, Roberto lost 40 kilos.

In that same month, the cis women forced him to sign, in a school notebook owned by Ainhoa Nogales Bergantiños, a statement that he willingly authorised both of them to remain at his home until they could get their own house. The abuses continued, including attacks on Mr Onrubia’s gender identity:

[…] once they stripped him naked and forced him to shave his entire body, while they were recording. It was a way to steal one of his male secondary sex characteristics (body hair) […] They also dressed him up as a girl with high heels and a miniskirt, something they knew he rejected, and threatened to pimp him out as a prostitute.

Finally, on the night of August 29, the cis women beat him to death.

“Roberto was found murdered on September 1, 2007 at his home, naked, on a mattress on the floor without sheets, without a pillow, filled with urine and feces; his body, which showed clear signs of malnutrition, was full of bruises of varying degrees, and his face with open, unhealed wounds was disfigured by apparent blows with one of them ending his life” and is described on the website Diario Digital Transexual.

Each of the cis women was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to pay costs and a fine of €90 000 to be paid to the estate of Mr Onrubia.

There’s little I can add to this horrific account except to say: RIP Roberto González Onrubia, mi hermano.

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Curtsey to Stephanie for the links and the heads-up

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Cross-posted at Questioning Transphobia