Former editor of the digital newspaper El Principal, who testified before the Badalona court investigating the case, claimed that the then-boss Saül Gordillo, the former director of Radio Catalunya, suggested there had been an intimate relationship. Legal sources cited by EL PERIÓDICO from the Prensa Ibérica group described the statements as acts of genuine consent.
The two and a half hour session included the testimony of both parties. The presiding judge declined to grant a precautionary measure requested by the special prosecutor, which would have required Gordillo to surrender his passport and to appear in court regularly.
The complainant recounted the events of the night of December 1 last year. He and colleagues from El Principal joined a dinner and then a party. After leaving the restaurant they moved to a bar and later to Apolo nightclub, staying until early morning hours. Gordillo joined the gathering. The young woman explained that she began to feel unwell as they left the bar, and she only recalled fragmented images from that moment.
One of these fragments shows her at the nightclub hugging a colleague from El Principal, the other journalist who also accused Gordillo of an alleged assault that same night.
Another fragment, later the following morning, showed Gordillo being driven home in his car. In that moment, the former manager of Catalunya Ràdio was described as providing sexual contact, which he says he asked to stop. He claimed that the encounter occurred in a field and that the three witnesses indicated Sant Adrià del Besòs as the location.
The third memory described by the young woman is when she returned home and told her partner what had happened. She recalls little beyond that night. Consulted sources note that alcohol had been consumed. When she went to the hospital the next day, she tested positive for an anxiolytic compound, diazepam, which she did not take herself.
Smile
In a Mossos d’Esquadra report analyzing footage captured at the young woman’s doorway when she arrived at her home, the entry is described as being made with a smile. The editor contends that, according to legal sources, in front of the judge this was not a smile but an expression of anger. At one point in his statement, the complainant shared an audio recording sent to a friend that prosecutors found particularly compelling.
Gordillo’s version maintains that the sexual relationship was consensual and that he never exploited his subordinate. He described how the night unfolded and how he escorted the editor to her home after leaving Apolo. Regarding the car incident, he characterized it as acts of voluntary consent, asserting that he is the one who suggested stopping because he was married and had a partner. He stated that he left her at her residence, and the atmosphere during the night was described as lively and celebratory.
Gordillo’s attorney, Carles Monguilod, argued that there was no criminal conduct on the part of his client and that the facts do not breach the Criminal Code. He noted that the judge declined to impose any injunction on the journalist and stressed that there is no compelling reason to treat the case as criminal activity because the video footage was recorded with permission.
The Mossos d’Esquadra reminded the defense that the report notes the young woman entered her building with a smile, while the find of diazepam in the editor’s system does not by itself prove who administered it, and even if it had, the substance causes drowsiness rather than euphoria.