Spanish player Hugo Mallo (33) was found guilty of sexually abusing a woman wearing a mascot costume, this Thursday by the Barcelona Criminal Court. The decision was made two months after being pronounced orally by the Barcelona City of Justice court, reports As. The events took place on April 24, 2019 during the pre-match protocol between Espanyol and Celta de Vigo, of which Mallo was then the captain. After greeting the opposing players, he touched the woman’s breasts without her consent, wearing a parakeet costume.
“He put his hands under her costume and touched her breasts”
“It is proven,” the judge determined in his decision, “that the accused today Mr. Hugo Mallo Novegil (…), at around 8:30 p.m. on April 24, 2019, when greeting both the members of the opposing team and the two people who characterize the mascots of Espanyol, these being a male parakeet and a female parakeet, upon reaching ‘Ana’, disguised as a parakeet, the accused, with the intention of satisfying his libidinous mood and violating her sexual integrity, put his hands under her costume and touched her breasts. Ana’ was forced to step back and push the accused away with her right hand.”
The ten-page judgment does not provide any grounds for justification or exoneration of the Spanish international (three caps), who has always denied the facts. The judge relied on the videos showing that there had been “touching of the victim’s chest”. He also pointed out the “contradiction” of a “serious nature” by Mallo in his account of the events. The current Aris Salonika player (after his transfer from Internacional Porto Alegre this summer) was tried according to the law in force at the time of the events. He thus escaped the accusation of sexual assault that would have been applied if they had taken place after the entry into force of the law “solo si es si” (only a yes is a yes).
The sentence was translated into a financial penalty with 1,000 euros and interest paid to the victim and a fine of ten euros per day for 20 months (6,000 euros), plus payment of the legal costs of the victim and the prosecution. Hugo Mallo’s lawyer had requested his acquittal and is expected to appeal the decision. A complaint against Mallo had been filed with the courts the day after the events by the victim.
Heard in July of the same year, the right-back denied it, assuring that he did not know the sex of the person under the costume. The case was provisionally closed in September 2019 before rebounding in 2021 by the revocation of this classification, a Barcelona court considering that the facts could “constitute the crime of sexual abuse”. On July 11 at his hearing, initially scheduled for May 25, 2023 then postponed, Hugo Mallo expressed his great surprise at being prosecuted. “I have no explanation as to why I received this complaint,” he confided
- RMC Sport
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