The Alicante Court of Appeals has acquitted two British citizens of an alleged rape for which they served a year and a half in prison. The victim stated that she met them at entertainment venues in the resort city and proceeded to the hotel with one of them that night for sex. When she arrived, she discovered the other friend in the room and climbed into bed with her for sex, unable to resist due to her drug use. The court has yet to determine the veracity of these claims. The victim declined to present at the trial and instead made a taped appearance in court, which was later used during the hearing.
The two Brits have been in prison since their arrest for these crimes in early November 2023, as we reported on Tuesday. Despite receiving a bail of 5,000 euros, the two British citizens chose not to pay it, as they couldn’t afford to stay in Spain until their trial. The hearing took place on Monday, June 2nd, and they were released on Tuesday. The acquittal was announced yesterday, Wednesday June 4th. The verdict is not final and can be challenged in the High Court of Justice, but in this case, the victim was not represented by a private prosecutor. Only the Prosecutor’s Office made the accusation. Lawyers Jorge MartÃnez Navas and Juan Bautista DÃaz de Corcuera Bilbao represented the defendants during their trial.
The court concludes that it has not been established that the complainant’s sexual contacts with the two defendants were non-consensual, that violence was used to overcome her opposition, or that the young woman’s abilities were hampered by alcohol or any other substance. The court notes that the two defendants’ statements were perfectly consistent. Both asserted that the connection was totally consensual, with the complainant actively participating and denying the use of pharmacological agents to reduce her will.
Security cameras
The court ruled that the victim’s testimony lacked credibility. First, based on the hotel receptionist’s story and that of the police officers who met with her, they reported no impairments in her faculties. The ruling further states that medical reports failed to discover anything. They did, however, analyse the footage from the security cameras, which shows the woman leaving the hotel with her brother, who appears to have no physical limits. In this regard, they point out that the tapes show the victim and the two accused arriving at the hotel together, speaking in the lift and on the balcony. These photographs contradict what she stated.
According to the verdict, the victim immediately reported the alleged sexual assault to her parents after leaving the hotel. Her brother, however, was the first to learn of the occurrence, arriving to the hotel and waiting for her to come downstairs. “While the two were together, the receptionist reported hearing an argument and her sobbing, so it cannot be ruled out that the reason for her crying was a reprimand from her brother for reasons that have not been explained , as they both refused to testify at trial,” the decision states. This excludes the possibility that it wasn’t a “spontaneous complaint.”
Although the prosecution emphasised the victim’s failure to seek compensation to lend credibility to her evidence, the judge underlined her refusal to testify at trial despite being offered every possibility. “What we conclude is not that she does not want to make a financial profit, but that she does not appear to have any interest in this trial ,” the report added.
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