The first major ruling under the new consent-based sexual assault law has been handed down in Barcelona. Section 21 of the Barcelona Court of Appeal has sentenced footballer Dani Alves to four years and six months in prison for sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in the VIP area bathrooms at Sutton nightclub in Barcelona, during the early hours of December 30 into December 31, 2022. The decision arrives two weeks after the trial, in which Alves, who has been imprisoned since January 20, 2023, claimed the encounter was consensual and that he had been drinking that night. The sentence from the Barcelona Court of Appeal can be appealed to the Catalan High Court and the Supreme Court. Alves was taken from Brians 2 prison to the Barcelona court to receive the verdict in person.
The public prosecutor and the private accusation, represented by Ester García on behalf of the victim, requested nine and twelve years in prison respectively for the former Barcelona player for a sexual assault with penetration. Alves’s defense, led by attorney Inés Guardiola, asked for acquittal or, in the alternative, one year of imprisonment and 50,000 euros in compensation based on alcohol impairment, along with other mitigating factors such as restitution for damages, or challenges to alleged breaches that, in his view, compromised defendants’ rights. The court found the victim’s testimony, corroborated by police investigation, the accounts of friends and nightclub staff, and forensic reports, sufficient to prove Alves’s guilt.
La indemnización
In addition to the prison term, the judges ordered Alves to pay 150,000 euros to the victim, a sum already deposited with the court that will be released to the complainant once the sentence becomes final. Although this matter involved a detainee, the ruling against the Brazilian athlete was issued in a matter of days rather than the timeline originally anticipated.
The court thus did not accept the player’s account that the complainant, then 23, had consented to the sexual activity in the nightclub restroom. “She did not tell me to stop, nor that she didn’t want to continue. We were both enjoying it, that’s all,” Alves testified during the trial. Ultimately, the court imposed a harsh penalty, and Alves will remain in custody for the time being.
The events trace back to the early hours of December 30 last year, when Alves flew to Barcelona. He contacted his friend Bruno, and they met for dinner before heading to Sutton, located on Tuset Street. They sat at a reserved table called Moët, which provides access to a suite without cameras and equipped with a large sofa, a television, and a refrigerator. A small bathroom sits off the corridor leading to another room.
The VIP restroom
Around 2 a.m., the victim, accompanied by her cousin and a friend, entered the club and moved to the central hall, then to the reserved area. Alves, a regular at the venue, invited the group for a drink. The victim says she did not know who the defendant was. After a few minutes of dancing and talking, Alves began to close the distance, eventually entering the door to the corridor that leads to the suite and guiding the group inside. From there he signaled the woman to approach.
She believed she was being shown another VIP area, but Alves led her to the small restroom and closed the door. Inside the cubicle, she asked to be allowed to leave. He grabbed her by the waist, sat her on him, and pulled her toward the floor, attempting to perform oral sex. She resisted, and he struck her several times in the face. When she refused again, he lifted her, tipped her toward the toilet, and sexually penetrated her. The club staff followed their standard procedure for handling sexual assaults after the victim explained the incident to several employees.
The podcast reconstruction
Journalists J. G. Albalat and Guillem Sánchez have documented the night’s events in Sutton through the podcast En Fuera de Juego, produced by El Periódico de Catalunya, part of the Prensa Ibérica group. The episode offers a detailed reconstruction of the evening of December 30, 2022, in Barcelona.
Citations and context
This case has generated extensive media attention across outlets in Spain and beyond, illustrating the legal process surrounding sexual violence allegations and the standards used to determine culpability when contrasting testimonies with forensic and investigative evidence. The court’s ruling aligns with the corroborative nature of the forensic reports and witness testimonies gathered by the Mossos d’Esquadra, as well as the accounts of friends and nightclub staff who witnessed events in the club that night. The public record confirms that the court weighed the evidence, the defense arguments, and the applicable legal framework before rendering its decision.
[Citation: Court documents and press reports pertaining to the case provide the official account and context of the proceedings.]