Between September 2013 and August 2014, several young girls were sexually assaulted in eastern Madrid. The perpetrator used a deception-based approach, gaining the children’s trust with seemingly innocent excuses before taking them to isolated locations. The social alarm was enormous. The police investigation, combined with geographical criminology techniques, led to the identification and arrest of Antonio Ángel Ortiz Martínez, known in the media as the “Ciudad Lineal Predator.”
This case is a clear example of how criminal profiling and spatial analysis can become decisive tools in solving serial crimes.
The perpetrator: biography and background
Antonio Ángel Ortiz Martínez was born in 1972 in Jaén, Spain. The child of separated parents, he lived with his father until the age of nine, when he moved in with his mother after his father was diagnosed with cancer. His father died shortly after. At fifteen, he was sent to a boarding school from which he was expelled at seventeen for running away.
From a young age, he was drawn into marginal environments. He began drinking heavily at seventeen, tried LSD at eighteen, and used cocaine from twenty to twenty-seven. He later replaced these substances with anabolic steroid cocktails linked to bodybuilding.
His employment record was unstable: car park attendant, waiter, nightclub bouncer, salesman, metro escalator installer. He told forensic examiners he never lasted more than a year at any job. He married twice and had two children from his first marriage. A domestic violence complaint was filed during that first relationship.
His prior criminal record already revealed criminal versatility: motorcycle thefts as a teenager, a drug offence at twenty-one, and a conviction in 1999 to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting a minor he had kidnapped outside a school. In 2007, he was arrested for kidnapping and robbery. Between 2009 and 2010, he served remand for two armed robberies.
At the time of the offences, Ortiz was forty-two years old and living with his mother and two younger half-sisters in the Ciudad Lineal neighbourhood.
The proven facts
The Madrid Provincial Court, later upheld by the Supreme Court, found four sexual assaults on minors aged between five and nine proven:
First assault (24 September 2013). Ortiz approached a five-year-old girl playing alone in a playground. He told her he knew her mother and had some bags to give her. He put her in a vehicle parked nearby, drove her to an undetermined location, sexually assaulted her, and abandoned her in a gardening shed.
Second assault (10 April 2014). He intercepted a nine-year-old girl leaving a shop while she was with two friends. He used the pretext of trying on modelling clothes and claimed to know her mother. He gave her three pills, drove her to a flat owned by his mother on Calle Santa Virgilia, where he sexually assaulted her in multiple ways. He forced her to shower and abandoned her at Canillejas metro station.
Third assault (17 June 2014). Using similar deceptions, he took a six-year-old girl to an unidentified property. He gave her sedative pills and sexually assaulted her. After washing her, he abandoned her on Calle Jazmín in Madrid.
Fourth assault (22 August 2014). He approached a seven-year-old girl playing with relatives in a park. He waited until she moved away from her companions and told her they were going to surprise her grandfather. For the first time, he used physical violence: he covered her mouth when putting her in the car. He drove her to wasteland, sexually assaulted her, and abandoned her at the scene.
Modus operandi: the pattern of deception
Analysis of Ortiz’s modus operandi reveals a consistent pattern that enabled investigators to link all four offences to a single perpetrator.
Method of approach. In every case, he used deception. He approached victims with a friendly, reassuring manner, arousing no suspicion among nearby adults. His primary device was inventing a fictitious relationship with the victims’ families: “I know your mum,” “your mother is waiting in the car.” This method — classified by Turvey as a deception approach — is characteristic of offenders who initially inspire neither fear nor distrust in victims or witnesses.
Method of attack. He followed a trap-attack pattern: he lured victims to his vehicle, pre-positioned nearby, where the children realised they had been deceived. Only in the final case did he introduce direct physical violence at this stage.
Method of control. This varied by victim: sedative pills with the second and third girls, physical intimidation with the fourth. In all cases, the physical disparity between a muscular, athletic man and girls under ten created an absolute power imbalance through fear alone.
Forensic awareness. Ortiz displayed some knowledge of anti-forensic techniques: he cleaned the victims after assaults (forcing them to shower or washing them himself), had the Santa Virgilia flat thoroughly cleaned, and in some cases administered sedatives that hindered later reconstruction of events. However, he made significant errors: he did not use condoms, left biological traces, used his mobile phone near crime scenes, and failed to remove identifiable objects from his vehicle.
Evolution. The modus operandi showed both evolution and regression. Between the first and second assault, he introduced sedatives and chose a more controlled indoor space. In the fourth, however, he regressed: no sedatives, assault committed on open wasteland with less privacy, and the victim abandoned at the scene.
Geographical profile: Canter’s theory applied to the case
Geographical criminology was a fundamental pillar of this investigation. David Canter’s theory, developed by the forensic psychologist and pioneer of investigative psychology, holds that crimes do not occur randomly but follow spatial patterns linked to the offender’s daily routines.
Key concepts
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Cognitive map. Individuals develop mental maps of their surroundings through routine activities. They are most familiar with areas near their activity centres, and it is in these zones that they tend to offend.
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Anchor point. The location from which the offender departs to commit crimes and to which they return. This generally coincides with the home, though it may be another place of regular activity.
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Canter’s Circle. A tool from mapping murder that plots crime locations on a map, identifies the cluster (geographical concentration) and estimates a “centre of gravity” indicating the offender’s most probable area of residence.
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Buffer zone. An area near the offender’s home where they avoid operating to reduce the risk of recognition.
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Marauder vs. commuter. Canter distinguishes between offenders who operate within their habitual area (marauders) and those who travel from another zone (commuters).
Application to the case
All attacks were concentrated in the districts of Hortaleza, Ciudad Lineal and San Blas-Canillejas, all a short distance from Ortiz’s home on Calle Montearagón. The geographical pattern clearly matched the profile of a marauder: a local hunter operating within his known territory.
Ortiz’s anchor point was his family home, and his main activity centre was a nearby gym he attended six days a week. The route between these two points passed through areas with playgrounds where he identified desirable targets (unsupervised minors) and a low level of risk.
The concentration of incidents allowed investigators to apply Canter’s Circle to estimate the offender’s probable area of residence, significantly reducing the search zone.
The investigation: Operation Candy
Operation Candy was formally launched after the second assault on 10 April 2014. SAM investigators (the police unit for crimes against women) quickly linked this case to the September 2013 report.
Initial work focused on analysing the routes described by the victim. Investigators concluded that the predator knew the neighbourhood well and abandoned victims at locations with quick escape routes. Composite sketches were produced and sex offender registries were cross-checked.
After the third assault, the case was officially classified as the work of a “serial sexual offender.” Police surveillance was intensified, particularly during school holidays. Despite these efforts, an attempted kidnapping was recorded on 8 August and the fourth assault on 22 August.
The victims’ statements built a physical profile: a man between 1.75 and 1.85 m tall, aged thirty to forty, muscular, with visible veins in his arms, pleasant-looking, possibly with a fringe. The detail about the veins and athletic build led investigators to conclude he regularly attended a gym.
Police pairs monitored the entrances to every gym in the assault zones. On 27 August 2014, they first identified Antonio Ángel Ortiz Martínez because of his close physical resemblance to the description. When he opened his gym bag to find identification, the officers noticed sports objects inside that matched items described by the victims.
From there, the investigation confirmed that mobile phone masts placed him in the assault zones during each offence. Every vehicle described by the victims was linked to him. His access to the flat on Calle Santa Virgilia was verified — it matched the second victim’s description exactly. DNA analysis confirmed that biological traces found on the second and third victims’ underwear belonged to him.
On 24 September 2014, GEO special operations officers arrested Ortiz at dawn in Santander, where he had relocated just days after being identified, bringing forward a planned trip because, as he told his uncle, he was “feeling very stressed.”
Sentence
Following a two-month closed-door trial (from October 2016), Antonio Ángel Ortiz Martínez was convicted of four sexual assaults on minors, two counts of unlawful detention and one count of causing injury. He was sentenced to seventy years and six months in prison, with no parole or penitentiary benefits, plus the corresponding disqualifications. After serving his effective sentence (estimated at twenty years), he must complete ten years of supervised release.
He is currently serving his sentence at Herrera de la Mancha prison (Ciudad Real).
Conclusion: what this case teaches us
The Ciudad Lineal predator case demonstrates the importance of geographical criminology as a criminal investigation tool. Canter’s theory revealed that the offences were not isolated events but followed a spatial pattern directly linked to the offender’s daily routines.
The analysis of modus operandi — especially the consistent deception-based approach — was key to linking the cases and determining they were the work of one individual. The combination of criminal profiling, geographical analysis, traditional police surveillance and forensic evidence led to the identification and conviction of the perpetrator.
In conclusion, analysing the geography of crime not only helps us understand where offences occur, but can be a decisive tool for identifying who commits them.
References:
- Martín Rodríguez, M. (2021). Criminological profile of Antonio Ángel Ortiz Martínez. Revista de Criminología, Psicología y Ley, 5, 90-148.
- Canter, D. (2003). Mapping Murder: The Secrets of Geographical Profiling. Virgin Books.
- Marlasca, M. Cazaré al monstruo por ti. Journalistic account of Operation Candy.
- Rossmo, D.K. (2000). Geographic Profiling. CRC Press.