2023-08-03 16:35:13
BarcelonaThe Supreme Court has confirmed the 4-year prison sentence for JJL, a former Barça physiotherapist, for touching a club employee without her consent. The events took place during a prescribed session to treat neck pain.
The convict had been working at Barça for 30 years. He had been in charge of physiotherapy for the first team, and at the time of the attack, in 2016, he was in charge of physiotherapy for the employees. According to the facts proven by the court, in the third session that the victim requested, JJL tried to massage her pubic area, but the woman warned him that she was on her period. In the fourth session, the convict touched her breasts and clitoris without consent. After these events, the victim suffered from an anxiety disorder and had to be off work for two months.
The sentence in the first instance entailed the disqualification of the physiotherapist for a total of two years and the payment of compensation of 10,000 euros to the woman. For its part, Barça was declared subsidiary civil responsible for this figure. The Supreme Court, through its magistrate, has rejected the defense’s arguments, which said that JJL’s action was mandatory from a health point of view. He adds that the victim’s statements about breast touching and nipple stretching cannot be justified in any way in terms of therapy.
“The acts are of sexual content not legitimized by non-existent consent. It is a leap into the void to say that having not made an express protest (except for menstrual discomfort) in the previous session and going to the next appointment, it should have been given of course consent for these peculiar intravaginal massages. Neither can silence be called consent in the face of an ambiguous mention such as ‘now, the interior’ or ‘now we will work on the interior’,” says the magistrate, who also sees “unsustainable” any kind of conspiracy by the company for the victim to report the facts to justice.
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