A 27-year-old Colombian man, an Inca resident, was released by a court in Palma on Wednesday following a hearing for events that occurred in Palma on August 28.
In the early hours of the 28th, a cleaning worker came across a 28-year-old Spanish woman on the Can Valero industrial estate. The woman was in a state of shock and unable to speak. She was missing items of clothing and her face was covered in blood.
She had been at a club and had gone with a man she knew to an alley. She told police that she didn't remember a great deal but that she had refused to engage in one particular sexual act with this man. The police initially thought that he had been responsible for the assault, but it emerged that there had been a second man - the one who was in court. She had gone with him to a different alley.
When a National Police patrol arrived at the scene, officers requested an ambulance. Several strands of hair had been torn out, she had received a blow to the head and her nose was bleeding non-stop.
The police arrested the man on September 5 and he first appeared in court on Tuesday. The judge eventually decided to release him, acknowledging that there were "plenty of indications" against the detainee, but noting that his entry into prison had not been requested by the Prosecutor's Office.
The investigation will continue as the court felt that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the suspect in court (or indeed the other man) had attacked and raped the woman. He will have to report to the court every fortnight and his passport has been withdrawn.