Testimonies and tears as the trial of Brazilian footballer Dani Alves begins. The complainant confirmed in court this Monday that the former Barça star raped her in a small toilet at the Sutton Nightclub in Barcelona, judicial sources confirm. They were only in that small space for 20 minutes. The victim reiterated the same accusatory account that she has maintained since the first day; she was firm, although at one point during the hour-long interrogation, she began to cry, and clarified that at first she had not wanted to report the sexual offence "for fear that she would not be believed". The victim's testimony took place behind closed doors, as ordered by the court to preserve her privacy. The questioning of the female friend who was with her at the nightclub, whose testimony was able to be heard, made a powerful impact.
The complainant's friend told the provincial court, the Barcelona Audience, that Dani Alves had a "repulsive attitude", that he touched her bottom and that a third young woman, the complainant's cousin, told her that "he had touched her pussy", that night in the private room. The friend reported that the victim had told her: "He hurt me a lot and he came while inside". "All three of us cried", she told the court, in tears, and added: "It was very difficult for us to report it. She was in shock, she didn't even want to tell her mother."
The victim was treated that same night at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, after the sexual assault protocol was activated in the nightclub. She lodged the complaint in court ten days later.
Now, she doesn't leave her house
And how is she [the victim] now? the prosecutor asked the friend. "Anxious. She doesn't trust anyone. And she was a girl with many friends and who used to travel", she responded . "She doesn't leave her house", added the friend to questions from the victim's lawyer, Ester Garcia.
"And didn't her friend dance hugging Alves? Weren't they skin to skin?" asked the defence lawyer, Inés Guardiola, who also asked her if she had spoken to the complainant before she went off with him. "I don't remember." It is the answer she gave to all the defence questions, and the presiding judge warned the witness that she could not give the same answer to all the questions. Witnesses are required to answer all questions, and unlike a defendant, cannot refuse to testify.
The victim's cousin
The third young woman, cousin of the victim, also confirmed her previous version, speaking though tears, in this Monday afternoon's session of the trial. She explained that the victim had told her that she needed to leave the nightclub, and in the cloakroom had said to her: "He hurt me a lot." The same words as the friend had testified that the victim said that night. "We cry about it, off and on," said the cousin in her testimony, also asserting that the victim does not want to go out and is not working.
Alves's lawyer repeatedly tried to bring out contradictions in the narrative of the victim and her two friends, noting the timings on the video of that night, in which the complainant and the footballer are seen dancing together. Did her cousin go in there of her own free will? asked the lawyer. "Yes," said the cousin.
The possible sentence
The sexual assault trial of the former FC Barcelona player began in Section 21 of the Barcelona Audience, Dani Alves, after the court refused to declare the hearing null and void, as the defence lawyer demanded. In the private prosection, the complainant's lawyer is calling for a 12 year prison term for Alves for rape, while the public prosecutor seeks 9 years in prison. After the hearing began this Monday with preliminary questions, the complainant declared behind closed doors followed by the friend who was with her in the early hours of December 30th, 2022, when the alleged rape took place.
The Brazilian footballer has been in provisional prison for a year, after the Barcelona Audience accepted that there was a flight risk.
Bathroom identified?
At the trial this Monday, two waiters also testified that they were present at the nightclub that night. One of them supported the version of the young women, who told them twice that they had been invited by Alves and his friend, Bruno, to a glass of cava, until they agreed to go to the private space.
The second waiter confirmed, to questions from the prosecution lawyer, that the small bathroom that Alves and the victim entered was not identified as such. And, thus, the complainant did not know where she was going, and that it is not the most private and intimate area for couples that there is in the nightclub.
The last person to testify at Monday's hearing was the doorman of the nightclub, who saw the victim crying and when she told him that "something important had happened to her", he alerted the manager of the Sutton, who activated the sexual assault protocol.
Twenty-two more witnesses
The trial of Dani Alves continues this Tuesday with the testimony of 22 witnesses, most of them agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra police, who investigated the case. The session will start at 3pm.