Featured Image Credit: Max
Topics: Crime, Parenting, World News, HBO
Poppy Bilderbeck
A mom set fire to a man who raped her daughter and was sent to prison for killing him.
In October 1998, 13-year-old Verónica Rodríguez García from Benejúzar in Alicante, Spain, was raped at knifepoint by her 63-year-old neighbor Antonio Cosme.
Cosme was found guilty and sentenced to prison, however, the ordeal was far from over.
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It's reported at the time the teenager accused her neighbor of rape, local residents were left divided, many refusing to believe it could have occurred and others standing by her, Meaww reports.
Verónica's mom María del Carmen García was left to support her traumatized daughter, alongside withstanding negative viewpoints, all while trying to seek some sort of justice.
Antonio Cosme was later found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison, but upon his release seven years later on parole, he reportedly bumped into María.
Around June 2005, Cosme allegedly ran into María and asked her, as quoted by El Pais: "How’s your daughter?"
María reportedly then went to buy a bottle of gasoline, found Cosme, poured the fuel all over him and set him alight.
It's reported Cosme died a week later as a result of the burns he suffered.
The mom was found guilty and sentenced for the rapist's killing in July 2009, receiving nine-and-a-half years.
Petitions were started and numerous appeals were launched, many outraged by the mother's conviction and sentencing given what Cosme had done to her daughter.
In 2010, her sentence was reduced to five-and-a-half years after her attorney pleaded she had acted under temporary insanity. Her sentence was placed on hold in 2011 pending a pardon application, however in 2013 it was rejected, The Mirror reports.
In 2018, it's reported María was finally released.
García's story inspired the HBO Max documentary series titled Hell on Earth: The Verónica Case.
According to a viewer who's watched the documentary, María 'wanted to make this doc to get the truth out because people in the village still believe he’s innocent, the mom is insane and the daughter is a w***e'.
"I am so angry at the world," the viewer added.
In the docuseries, Verónica reportedly resolves: "My mom protected me and now that she’s free, i protect her from the media."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org