The Eighth Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona has dismissed the appeal of the former Celta de Vigo player and captain, Hugo Mallo, against the sentence he received last September for sexual abuse of Carme Coma, the person who worked as a mascot. of Espanyol. The court, composed of six judges, three men and three women, has unanimously ruled out the footballer’s appealconfirming his full sentence.
According to the resolution of the National Court regarding Mallo’s appeal, “full conviction has been reached that the events occurred as reported by the victim.”
With this decision, it rejects the presumption of innocence that the footballer intended to rely on, since the conviction of the Criminal Court number 19 of Barcelona was based on incriminating evidence, both the testimony of the victim and the videos provided at the trial.
This court argues that Mallo’s version “is contradictory not only with the victim’s testimony but with the images provided”.
The former Celta captain was convicted of touching the breasts, without any consent, of the woman wearing the Espanyol mascot costume, after the protocol greeting of both teams in the moments before the initial whistle of the First Division match played at the RCDE Stadium on April 24, 2019.
Mallo denied the facts
During the trial, held in July, Mallo denied the facts at all times and assured that he only shook her hand to greet her, although he did not rule out that the hand that touched the area of the woman’s upper waist was his own. , while the complainant explained that, when she was in line to receive the members of the visiting team, the first player -Mallo- put “his hands on her breasts.” After that, he walked away, “he felt stupor, he even said bastard,” and he no longer greeted any more footballers. She also noted that she was “very stunned” and “affected” until she filed a complaint with the Mossos d’Esquadra.
After listening to the parties, Judge Salvador Roig Tejedor, head of the Criminal Court, considered that the footballer acted in this way “with the intention of satisfying his libidinous mood and undermining her sexual indemnity, he put his hands on her “under the costume and touched her breasts, the victim being forced to step back and push the accused away with her right hand.”
Consequently, he imposed on Hugo Mallo a fine of 6,000 euros for sexual abuse and compensation of another 1,000 euros for moral damagesdismissing a minimum sentence “as there has not been an act of constriction or repentance by the accused towards the victim.”
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