The Argentine actress Thelma Fardin needed almost six years for Justice to believe that she was a victim of sexual abuse when she was a minor. A Brazilian court of second instance sentenced this Monday the actor Juan Darthés to six years in prison for raping Fardin in Nicaragua in 2009, at the end of the tour of a youth series in which both participated. She was 16 years old; He, 45. “She had lost faith in Justice,” Fardin said on the verge of tears shortly after hearing the ruling that overturned the acquittal ruling handed down last year by a lower court.
“This sentence has to be a message of hope for all those people who are still suffering some type of abuse. It has to be a hope so that, even if they think it is very difficult, that the person they have to denounce is very powerful and has many tools, there is a possibility of reparation,” Fardin stressed at a press conference in Buenos Aires. “Although my case obtained justice today, it is not the reality of most cases,” he warned. The Argentine actress had numerous supports throughout the judicial process, including that of the Amnesty International organization. She also achieved the collaboration of the prosecutors’ offices of three countries—Nicaragua, Argentina and Brazil—so that the case could move forward.
Darthés was convicted in a majority verdict, by two votes to one. The actor will not go to prison because the sentence is not yet final and he can appeal it to a higher court.
Paradigm shift
The sentence marks a paradigm shift by focusing on the role of power that Darthés had over Fardin and sends a clear message: justice must listen to the victims. “We all know that crimes of this nature occur in solitude, so the testimony of the victim takes on very important relevance. That is why the result is restorative,” said one of Fardin’s lawyers, Martín Arias Duval. “I think this gives us a glimmer of hope that, fortunately, stereotypes and practices that have to do with a way of thinking that do nothing but re-victimize the victim over and over again are beginning to be broken,” he said.
An emblematic case
Fardin’s case marked a turning point in the fight against gender violence in Argentina. Darthés is a very popular actor in the Latin American country and for more than 20 years he played the roles of heartthrob and family man. Three other actresses had publicly accused him before – Calu Rivero, Natalia Juncos and Ana Coacci – but few believed them. The day Fardin broke the silence surrounded by dozens of colleagues was different. The crude story of his rape provoked an unprecedented wave of solidarity and calls to the hotline against childhood sexual abuse increased by 1,240%.
“I received many attacks,” Fardin recalled this Monday. “They told me he was doing it for fame, and I can’t think of who would think of using something like that to gain fame. They have said that he was looking to make some profit. But there are millions of us and there were millions of us who said: ‘We are not silent anymore,’” he warned.
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