Dani Alves, sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for raping a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub – – 2024-02-25 17:04:26

The Provincial Court of Barcelona has sentenced footballer Dani Alves to 4 years and 6 months in prison for the rape of a young woman at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona in the early hours of December 31, 2022. The court considers it proven that the victim did not consent to the relationships and that there are elements of evidence, in addition to the complainant’s own testimony, to understand the rape and, therefore, the commission of the crime of sexual assault as proven.

In addition to the prison sentence, the Court sentences Alves to 5 years of supervised release after his release from prison, as well as to compensate the victim with 150,000 euros for the moral damage and injuries suffered and a total fine of 9,000 euros. for a minor crime of injuries. Likewise, they prevent him from communicating with the complainants by any means and from approaching her within 1,000 meters, according to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJCat).

In its ruling, the court of Section 21 of the Barcelona Court stated that “the court considers it proven that “the accused abruptly grabbed the complainant, threw her to the ground and, preventing her from moving, penetrated her vaginally, despite the fact that the complainant said No, he wanted to leave” the private bathroom of the Sutton nightclub where the events occurred. And he understands that “this fulfills the type of absence of consent, with the use of violence, and with carnal access.”

The resolution explains that “for the existence of sexual assault it is not necessary that physical injuries occur, nor that there be evidence of heroic opposition on the part of the victim to having sexual relations.” And he specifies that “in the present case we also find injuries on the victim that make more than evident the existence of violence to force her will, with subsequent carnal access that is not denied by the accused.”

The victim’s statement
Regarding the statement of the young complainant, the court states in the ruling that “it has reached conviction about the facts by having positively evaluated the witness statement in the act of the victim’s oral trial, together with other evidence that corroborates her story. ”. The magistrates consider that, in the essential core of her statement, the victim has been “coherent and especially persistent, not only throughout the investigation of the case, but also in the plenary session without evidence of the presence of “relevant contradiction in relation to what she previously stated in the investigation.”

In the resolution, the magistrates point to several “peripheral corroborations that support the complainant’s version regarding non-consensual vaginal penetration.” Among them, they mention the existence of injuries to the victim’s knee, her state of anxiety immediately after the events and the existence of consequences for the young woman.