150 Medical Records Illegally Accessed in Two Years
The central figure in this case is a nurse working in Navarra. According to court documents, between 2018 and 2020, the nurse used her work credentials at the Navarra Health Service (SNS) to systematically and without authorization access the clinical histories of three specific individuals.
The investigation revealed that the victims had a personal connection to the nurse: they were her ex-boyfriend’s current long-term partner, the partner’s sister, and her minor daughter. Over two years, the defendant’s snooping occurred approximately 150 times, constituting a serious invasion of their privacy.
Initial Harsh Sentence and Institutional Liability
In the initial trial, the court deemed the defendant’s actions malicious and convicted her of three counts of continuous disclosure of secrets, sentencing her to a total of 5 years in prison. Furthermore, the verdict included substantial civil compensation, requiring the defendant to pay €15,000, €6,000, and €4,000 respectively to the three victims.
Notably, the original ruling also held the Navarra Health Service (SNS) subsidiarily liable for compensation. The court found that the medical institution had systemic management loopholes and failed to establish effective monitoring and restriction mechanisms for medical staff accessing patient records, thereby providing an opportunity for the nurse’s illegal activities.
Appeal Focus: A ‘Judicial Paralysis’ of Three and a Half Years
After the case was appealed to the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Navarra (TSJN), the focus of the trial shifted to procedural justice. The court found that the judicial process had experienced an extremely slow stagnation. There was a ‘judicial vacuum’ of three and a half years between the prosecution filing the indictment in November 2021 and the defense submitting its brief in April 2025.
The judges explicitly stated that this delay was not caused by the complexity of the case itself, but rather by administrative inaction without proper justification. Consequently, the court elevated the situation from a ‘simple delay’ to a ‘highly qualified undue delay’ (dilaciones indebidas muy cualificadas), using this as the key basis for reducing the sentence.
Final Verdict: Prison Term, Fine, and Professional Ban All Reduced
Based on the finding of undue judicial delay, the High Court of Justice of Navarra significantly amended the original sentence. For each of the three charges the defendant faced, the prison term was reduced from 20 months to 12 months, bringing the total sentence down from 5 years to 3 years.
Correspondingly, the fine was lowered from €4,860 to €3,780, and the period of professional disqualification was drastically shortened from 13 years and 6 months to 9 years. Although the defendant had previously voluntarily paid €10,000 in compensation, which had already been considered a mitigating factor, the primary reason for this appeal’s sentence modification was the severe protraction of the legal process itself. This ruling is not final and can still be appealed to the Spanish Supreme Court.
