Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
These three Spanish footballers have been found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl in the dark and sentenced to 38 years in prison each.
Footballers Carlos Cuadrado, 24, Victor Rodriguez, 22, and Raul Calvo, 19, were all arrested when they were playing for Spanish third-tier side Arandina CF together and have now been found guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl by the Burgos Provincial Court in the northern Spanish city of Burgos.
The three footballers were found to have sexually assaulted the underage girl at their flat in the town of Aranda de Duero in the Castile and Leon region of north-central Spain. According to local media, they committed the crime after she refused to have sex with them at the flat that they share.
The court heard the trio committed “sexual assault with carnal access to the mouth” of the young girl.
The sentence added that there was “the existence of environmental intimidation due to the fact that the three defendants acted on the victim, on their floor, with the light off and by surprise, without the minor being able to react, due to the difference in age and physical complexion of the accused.”
The trio was handed 14 years for the rape of a minor and 24 years for co-operating in the crimes of their co-conspirators. They must also pay the victim a total of 50,000 EUR (42,122 GBP) in damages.
Thirty-eight years was close to the maximum sentence asked for by prosecutors, who requested 40 for Calvo, as he was accused of continued sexual aggression, which he was cleared of, and 39 for Cuadrado and Rodriguez.
All three were cleared of the crime of proposing sexual activities. The sentence took into account that the mother of the victim among others had warned the trio of the girl’s age.
Local media report the case first came to light after the girl’s parent called local NGO Fundacion ANAR, who work with youngsters in situations of risk and distress.
The girl was reportedly receiving psychological treatment and had been travelling to Madrid every week with her parents to receive the treatment. It was during one of these sessions when she reportedly said three men had proposed having sex with her in their home.
She had reportedly said she “submitted” to them to “avoid worse evils”.
They were first arrested in December 2017 and the trial began on 21st November 2019 and the request for penalties was based on the jurisprudence created in the ‘Wolf Pack’ case.
In that case, the Spanish Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision to define the crime as sexual abuse and affirmed that the men were guilty of rape.
The trio are expected to enter prison immediately.
The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
