The sentencing proposal considers proven that the victim did not consent to anal penetration
La Audience of Barcelona sentencing to a sentence that can reach five years in prison a man for raping another in the dark room of a gay nightclub in Barcelona. The proposal of the rapporteur magistrate, David Ferrer, which the newspaper has accessed El País, considers it proven that the victim did not give her consent to anal penetration without a condom. Moments before, they had both had consensual oral sex in the dark room. The victim "He refused both by word and action"to continue a sexual relationship that had been"initiated with full consent", according to the text.
The proposal, which still must be submitted to a vote and ruling by three magistrates of the Ninth Section, is fundamentally based on what was stated by the victim, to whom it gives credibility, among other things, because it explained “aspects that hypothetically harm the accusatory thesis".
Resistance in the dark room
The victim acknowledged, for example, that they had consensual oral sex and that she obviously withdrew her consent when she saw that the man she had just met intended to perform anal penetration without a condom. In her statement, behind closed doors, she did not even accuse the accused: she said that she did not think he was a rapist, but that that night she did do something bad with him because I do not stop when he asked him to do it and even though put up physical resistance.
The events occurred early Saturday morning January 26, 2020 at the disco Sand, one of the historic rooms of the Gayxample Barcelona, which has a dark room, a space that allows sexual relations to be held anonymously. The victim entered that dimly lit room with a friend and there she met the accused. Her stories coincide in what happened during the first moments of the encounter: they began to touch and kiss each other and practice oral sex. The discrepancy came when explaining the penetration.
The victim denies that there was consent
During the trial, the 40-year-old defendant denied having committed rape. “At no time did I hear the word 'no' or notice him pushing me or being reluctant”. The victim, however, reported that explicitly refused to have complete sexual relations and he physically resisted until the accused put him against the wall, held his arms and penetrated him anally until he ejaculated inside him. The reporting magistrate notes that the victim “stopped resisting"because the accused"I had more strength than him” and could not continue to oppose it. “There is a violent attitude, also physical”, by the accused, who sought “forcibly impose a sexual practice" although "did not have any consent".
In her statement, the victim expressed her fear that they would not believe him for the fact of being a man and for the “associated social stigma” to male victims of sexual violence. The prosecutor in the case defended the credibility of the victim in her report and maintained that “consent is an act of permanent affirmation".
