A court of Barcelona has sentenced the journalist to one year in prison and another two years of probation Saul Gordilloformer director of Catalunya Ràdio and of the Catalan News Agency (ACN) for sexual assault of one of the editors of the digital newspaper The Main.
In the sentence, the head of criminal court number 7 of Barcelona concludes that Gordillo committed a crime of sexual assault by touching the editor and attacking her sexual freedom, without any prior express consent on the part of the young woman.
The judge also imposes disqualification on Gordillo from any profession, trade or activity that involves regular and direct contact with minors for a period of two years and prohibits him from approaching the victim at less than a thousand meters and communicating with her for two years. years.
According to the ruling, there is evidence that can destroy the presumption of innocence of Gordillo, to whom the judge reproaches the “gratuity of the touching” and that he was “indifferent” to the victim’s consent. Gordillo, according to the judge, “has not understood the more than necessary change in mentality and protection of women’s sexual freedom” in relation to consent.
In this sense, the judge rejects the “interested interpretation” that Gordillo made in the trial when attributing to the victim “signs of consent that cannot be valid today, in which express consent is required, which in no way has been accredited”.
“The fact that there was no reaction against it in no way justifies the claim to constitute consent, an extreme that was the origin of the change in approach to the reform of law 10/2022 (that of only yes is yes), regarding the proof of explicit consent: currently, consent must be accredited, in addition to being free and prior“he emphasizes.
The judge gives credibility to the victim’s story, who has maintained “persistence in the incrimination” and has narrated the events “with coherence and concreteness from the beginning” and without spurious interest, which “does poorly” with the exculpatory thesis of the “purported game, flirtation, flirtation” maintained by the accused, “who was the only one who perceived it.”
In a statement, Gordillo’s defense has announced that will appeal the sentencesince he believes that there has been an “error” in the assessment of the existence or not of consent, since he insists that there was, which is why he understands that the accused should have been acquitted.
The attack occurred after a company dinner
The sexual assault It occurred in the early hours of December 1, after a Christmas dinner, when several newspaper workers, including Gordillo and the victim, who was 23 years old at the time – 27 younger than the accused – and who had been in this business for just three months, They headed to the party room Apollo from Barcelona.
Once there, Gordillo approached the victim “furtively” and lowered his hand down her back, grabbed her buttocks and tried to look for her genitals, although he could not reach them directly due to the clothing she was wearing. girl.
A minute later, Gordillo approached the victim from behind and, with his left hand underneath his shorts, touched his genitals without his consent. The victim continued in the bar of the establishment, “in a clear cognitive dissociation,” according to the sentence, and it was not until a few minutes later when he “reacted” and, in an “obvious state of nervousness, anxiety and confusion,” he explained to his colleagues. what had happened.
Since then, the victim, who has not requested any economic amount Due to these events, he has suffered a post-traumatic stress disorderwith anguish, emotional overflow, acute sadness and difficulties sleeping, for which she has needed psychological attention.
The judge sentences him to the “minimum sentence” of one year in prison
At the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office requested two years in prison for Gordillo, while the private prosecution requested four years in prison, although the judge sentenced him to the “minimum sentence” of one year in prison considering that it is “more than adjusted according to the facts that are declared proven.”
Gordillo has another open case following the complaint filed against him by a second editor of The Main for sexually assaulting her the same night, when he was driving her home after the company dinner, in a case in which the Prosecutor’s Office is asking him for four years in prison.
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