Real Madrid Defender Raul Asencio Faces Trial Over Alleged Distribution of Minor’s Intimate Video

Real Madrid defender Raúl Asencio, 23, will stand trial in Gran Canaria on September 3, 4 and 7 for two alleged crimes under the Spanish Criminal Code: (1) distributing a video of a sexual encounter without consent and sharing a sex tape involving a minor. He is tried alongside former youth-team teammates Ferran Ruiz, Juan Rodríguez and Andrés García, who face similar accusations of recording and distributing the footage. Although the two alleged victims have withdrawn their complaints, the judge ruled that each must repeat the withdrawal in court for it to be recorded.

New York Times

The alleged incident occurred at a beach club in the Canary Islands in June 2023. The younger victim and her mother filed a complaint with the Guardia Civil in Santa María de Guía on September 6, 2023. A second complaint followed shortly after. According to leaked testimony, the girls asked the players to delete the recordings; one girl later claimed the players transferred the video to other phones. On September 15, 2023, Guardia Civil officers arrived at Real Madrid’s training facilities, arrested three players, and interviewed Asencio as a witness before he became a suspect.

New York Times

• The prosecutor’s office has asked for a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Asencio and comparable terms for the three co-defendants.

New York Times

• The presiding judge dismissed all defence arguments in a preliminary hearing, ruling that phone seizures and noting that “all the defendants made backups to their cloud account to delete contents before their arrests, in a clear attempt to thwart the investigation of the reported events.”

New York Times

• Prosecutors claim the alleged victims suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident.

New York Times

• “All the defendants made backups to their cloud account to delete contents before their arrests, in a clear attempt to thwart the investigation of the reported events.” — The Athletic

New York Times

The trial will determine whether the defendants’ alleged actions constitute crimes against privacy under Article 77 and Article 197.1.3 of the Spanish Criminal Code.

New York Times