In response to the evidence and arguments presented by the Attorney General’s Office in an oral trial, a criminal judge of San Andrés Islas sentenced Hernán Mcgowan Archbold to 30 years and 8 months in prison, and declared him responsible for the crime of forced disappearance.

The victim of the events that led to the sentence, a 35-year-old woman, was last seen on December 19, 2010, in a home in the La Piscinita sector, in San Andrés. Since then his whereabouts have been unknown.

At the time, Mcgowan Archbold, her romantic partner, told family members and authorities that her partner had traveled to Nicaragua to carry out some personal errands and that he had taken her on a boat out to sea to transfer to another boat.

In the course of the investigation led by a specialized prosecutor from the San Andrés Section, it was learned that the 70-year-old man was the last person who had contact with the woman. Likewise, information was obtained that proved that he did not enter the Central American country or reach the place to which he was supposed to go.

During the verifications, it was also evident that, during the time they lived together, the convicted man subjected his partner to a continuous cycle of physical and verbal violence.

The sentence issued, in addition to stating that the sentence must be carried out in a prison, imposes on Hernán Mcgowan Archbold the payment of a fine equivalent to 1,333 current legal minimum wages and inability to exercise public rights and functions.

The ruling is of first instance and legal remedies apply against it.