The Alicante Court has taken two young British men to trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a fellow British woman in a Benidorm hotel while on holiday. The incident occurred in the early hours of November 5th, 2023, when the young woman left with one of them after meeting him at a nightclub. The victim said that while in the hotel room, the accused’s companion appeared, and they ended up having sex together.
The victim claims that after receiving a bottle of water, she experienced dizziness and eventually lost consciousness. Each time she awoke, she saw them taking turns, unaware of what had happened. This story directly contradicts that of the two defendants, who said it was a consensual relationship and that she left later, indicating no inappropriate behaviour in the room and that she was neither inebriated or impaired.
Both have remained in pretrial detention since the complaint was filed, as the charges comprised serious offences and neither resided in Spain, posing a flight risk. The court set bail at €5,000, but they couldn’t afford to stay until the trial, so they didn’t pay.
The victim did not attend the hearing. The Benidorm court examined the events and videotaped the young woman’s appearance as pre-constituted evidence. Her testimony was the key evidence during the hearing, during which she confirmed her complaint and said unequivocally that she did not wish to have any contact with the second defendant.
The Tenth Section of the Alicante Court has completed the sentencing trial. The prosecution has maintained its request that each of the accused serve eight years in prison for sexual assault. The defence has asked for an acquittal and the immediate release of their clients while the sentence is being draughted. In their final reports, the parties maintained starkly opposing accounts of the events. “It’s one thing for the victim to want to have sex with one of the defendants, but what is clear is that she did not want what happened in that room,” the prosecutor said, insisting that the relationship was non-consensual.
The defence claimed that there is no evidence to back up the victim’s story and that her reason for bringing the complaint was to avoid explaining to her family why she slept with two strangers that same night.
Security cameras
The defence has emphasised the security camera footage, which shows the group arriving at the hotel, boarding the elevator, and, once in their room, the two defendants conversing on the balcony. Attorney Jorge MartÃnez Navas, who took over the case in the last stages of the investigation, emphasised that these photographs show a young woman arriving at the hotel with the two defendants and casually chatting with them. For her side, the prosecutor feels the photographs demonstrate that she only spoke with one of them.
In this context, the defence emphasised that “no drug in the world can override someone’s will for forty minutes and disappear without any trace.” The hospital tests were negative for substance usage. The woman stated she had only had a few drinks while partying and that in the hotel room she began to feel dizzy after being given a bottle of water, but she was unsure if the bottle contained anything. Medical examinations revealed that she had relationships with both of them.
The receptionist at the hotel where the two defendants were staying indicated that, while he did not recall exactly what transpired that night, he did not see the girl was agitated since she had drunk alcohol. Later, he saw her speed away, sobbing, and someone else arrived to pick her up. In future appearances, it was revealed that this person was her brother, with whom she had first gone out and then left before going off with the boy she had just met. He left her a message in her room, begging her to come pick her up.
The receptionist explained that the girl’s father and brother later arrived and attempted to access all of the hotel rooms in search of the suspects, clashing with security personnel. The hotel lodged a complaint with the police that night.
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