ARCHIVED - Murcia man fined after travelling to Alicante for sexual relations with his girlfriend

The offender broke the pandemic travel ban in Alicante claiming that sex is just as much of a basic need as food

It is certainly the case that many personal relationships have been put under great strain by the restrictions imposed in efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain over the last year, but an incident reported by the Policía Local of Alicante over the weekend serves to confirm that relationships and emotional wellbeing cannot be allowed to override the need to obey travel bans.

The city of Alicante is one of those where the regional government of Valencia has imposed a weekend ban on crossing the municipal boundary, but the incident concerned involves a 40-year-old man who travelled to the capital of the Costa Blanca by bus from Murcia to visit his girlfriend. Unfortunately for him, the local police in Alicante are doing their utmost to enforce the travel ban and the bus was stopped at a checkpoint in the Avenida de Elche, where he was identified as having entered the city from the Region of Murcia and procedures were initiated for him to be fined accordingly.

But it was the “justification” for his visit that has attracted attention in the press: stating that travel was allowed in order to cater for “basic needs”, and reportedly taking from his pocket a newspaper cutting to prove it, he explained to officers that he hadn’t seen his girlfriend for a month and “needed” to have sexual relations with her.

After all, he argued, sex is just as much of a basic need as food!

Since the ban on entering and leaving cities with over 50,000 inhabitants was introduced throughout the Comunidad Valenciana (which includes the province of Alicante), the police have become accustomed to hearing a variety of excuses for not wearing facemasks or exceeding the number of passengers allowed in motor vehicles, but this is the first time the need for sex has been cited as a reason for failing to obey the restrictions. In this case they were not impressed and the fine was duly issued before arrangements were made for one of the man’s friends to drive to Alicante and collect him.

Others to have been caught out by the long arm of the law in the province of Alicante recently include a couple in their 80s who were heading for the Hotel Meliá in the city, where the man explained that he had planned a weekend of “partying with his girlfriend”, and a woman who when she was stopped by the police claimed that she suffered from lapses in memory and couldn’t remember when the travel bans are in force. Patience with this particular offender was exhausted when she was stopped again the following day, this time claiming that she was intending to shop at a non-existent supermarket in El Altet.

All of these offenders are among the 1,531 people reported to have been fined for disobeying pandemic restrictions over the weekend in Alicante, Elche, Orihuela, Benidorm, Alcoy, Elda and Petrer, almost 300 more than the previous weekend.