Three more women accuse filmmaker Carlos Vermut of sexual violence

Three more women claim to have suffered sexual violence at the hands of Spanish filmmaker Carlos Vermut, winner of the San Sebastián Golden Shell with

Magical Girl

(2014).

An artist - now a social educator -, a cultural manager and an actress have reported to EL PAÍS that the director had violent sexual relations with them to which they never consented.

Her testimonies join those of three other women – a film student, an employee of one of his productions and a worker in the cultural sector – who revealed their stories to this newspaper in an investigation published on January 26.

EL PAÍS has tried to contact, unsuccessfully, Vermut since Thursday with various phone calls, WhatsApps and emails.

More information

Three women accuse film director Carlos Vermut of sexual violence

The events exposed in these three testimonies took place between October 2012 and early January 2024. In one of them, the artist, now a social educator, tells how Carlos Vermut —stage name of Carlos López del Rey (Madrid, 43 years old) )—forced her to have anal sex without consent and which caused a “tear.”

On another occasion, this same woman describes that he forced her to have sex inside her front door, even though she had told him that she didn't want anything from her.

“It hurt me a lot,” explains this woman, “I got dizzy and vomited during the act.”

In the second story, the cultural manager narrates a sexual encounter with blows, strangulations and gagging, and assures: "It was not a game or an unconventional practice, it was violence for violence's sake."

In the third testimony, the actress, who had a relationship with Vermut from the spring of 2023 until January, describes two occasions in which she claims that the filmmaker forced her to have violent sex that she did not consent to after months of psychological violence.

Three days after ending the relationship, she called her 016, according to her testimony and that of three people close to her.

She has also gone to ask for support at a public center in Madrid that provides comprehensive care for women victims of sexual violence, according to EL PAÍS.

None of the three have wanted their name to appear published, as they fear reprisals in their jobs and in part of public opinion.

Nor did any of them file a complaint with the police at the time, they insist that they did not feel that they would be believed.

According to data from the Ministry of Equality, only 8% of victims who suffer sexual violence dare to report it.

This newspaper has sworn statements from these three women, where they confirm all the facts they report here.

EL PAÍS has new documentary material on which this investigation is based.

On this occasion, this newspaper has learned that at least 18 people in the audiovisual sector knew of his stories and has collected the testimonies of 12 people close to him.

In addition, it has emails, photographs, call logs, conversations, both on WhatsApp and on other social networks, that these women had with Vermut and with people around them to whom they confessed what had happened to them.

All this new documentation is added to what this newspaper already collected for the preparation of the first information published about Vermut on January 26.

Then, EL PAÍS had access to

emails,

photos, WhatsApp conversations with him and with people in his professional circle and interviews with 31 industry workers, who also did not want to give his name.

And also the testimonies of six people around him.

For that publication, this newspaper interviewed the filmmaker three times.

Carlos Vermut, with the Silver Shell for best direction at the 2014 San Sebastián festival. Carlos Alvarez (Getty Images)

Since the publication of the previous investigation, the audiovisual world has reacted by giving its support to the victims, although with very different opinions about how to address sexual violence born from the abuse of power.

In addition, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media CIMA signed an agreement with the Ministry of Equality to prepare a report on the audiovisual industry and “safe environments for women” that they hope to present in September;

and the Ministry of Culture announced the creation of an office to care for victims of sexist violence.

All of this, days before the last Goya Awards gala, on February 10, whose script was rewritten to include the condemnation of the attacks, and in which CIMA members carried a paipay with the motto #Seacabó.

As in the January 26 article, the women who report these abuses also do not know each other.

It was upon reading the testimonies revealed in EL PAÍS that they considered that the time had come to break their silence.

Testimony 1. October 2012. Madrid

This artist, today a social educator, was 25 years old in 2012 when she met Carlos Vermut through mutual friends.

They used to meet at the Picnic bar in Madrid, she says.

“By then she had already become known, and she used to go there with other people from the world of cinema,” says this woman, who is now 36 years old.

One night in October 2012, she says that she ended up in the apartment that the film director shared with two other people dedicated to the audiovisual sector.

“We went to her house to drink the last one,” explains this woman, who affirms that her roommates were also there.

EL PAÍS has spoken with them and they confirm that they lived together between October 2012 and November 2013. This woman and Vermut entered the filmmaker's room.

“I was on the floor, lying face down, he tried to force himself anally on me and he succeeded,” says the woman.

“I don't remember if I said no, what is clear to me is that my body posture and the screams I gave were of pain.

I screamed, they had to hear me throughout the house,” she says, although the roommates do not remember hearing the screams.

“It tore me apart, it left me in a mess.

That wasn't fucking.

The feeling was that she was forcing me.

It was extremely aggressive sex.

That night he also tried to strangle me.”

He never asked her if she was okay, she says.

After this experience, this woman says she tried to forget it: “I blocked out what had happened to me, out of shame and guilt.”

She remained linked to the filmmaker's circle and wrote to him often.

The film director did not answer her or ignored her, telling her, as she remembers, that she had a girlfriend.

Later it was Vermut who tried to see her.

“She started texting me quite insistently,” he remembers, until she agreed to meet up.

“In the end she came to my neighborhood.

I warned her that nothing could happen to her because at that time I had a partner,” she explains.

They met in a bar near his house, he says.

“We started drinking and I got drunk,” she remembers.

According to this woman's story, Vermut insisted that they go to a hotel.

“I told him no, I didn't want to, I didn't feel like it.

I told him again that I wanted to go home, that I didn't want to have sex with him,” she says.

The filmmaker, she claims, accompanied her to the entrance to her home.

“I don't remember if I let him in or if he got in.”

“I don't remember well how he started either.

I was against the wall and he was behind.

They were very brutal relationships, it hurt me a lot.

I vomited from the mixture of alcohol, pain and fear.

“He realized it and did nothing,” she continues.

“The guy finished and he left.”

On this second occasion, unlike what had happened to him in the meeting at the filmmaker's apartment, he assures that he did not scream.

“In the porch I held on so as not to wake up my neighbors, out of shame,” he says.

“I went up to my house, took a quick shower and kept it to myself from my partner.”

This woman did not have contact with Vermut alone again, although they did cross paths on a couple of occasions at the Picnic.

After some time, he began to accept what had happened to him and talk about it with five people around him, whom this newspaper has contacted to confirm the events reported.

“There was a lot of shame.

She told myself: 'You're a fucking groupie, this is what happens to you for getting into where you got into.'

Added to this idea, she says, was “the fear of rejection.”

“And they didn't believe me because of who he was,” she explains.

“At that time he was beginning to be a cult filmmaker and the darling of a producer and a film director with a lot of power in the industry.”

The same day that EL PAÍS's first investigation about Vermut was published, this woman wrote to a friend at 3:46 p.m., with whom she commented on a link to the news:

—Aunt... He's my rapist.

I'm upside down.

—I know, aunt.

In fact, I thought you were one of those who reported him.

—I almost vomited this morning.

I'm kind of stunned.

—How horrible, aunt.

Testimony 2. Summer 2013. Madrid

This cultural manager and Vermut met in 2006 through a social network where they both posted and commented on their artistic works.

“Carlos was a reference for me, just as I was for him,” says this 39-year-old woman about the filmmaker's first stage as a comic book artist.

She, who at that time was finishing her degree, was 21 years old.

In 2008, according to her story, she moved to Madrid, where she shared a flat with people around Vermut, as EL PAÍS has been able to confirm.

“We used to all hang out together.

We were part of the same group of artists,” she says.

She was one of the few women in this circle of film directors and producers, illustrators, screenwriters and comedians.

During his first years in Madrid, his relationship with Vermut became closer.

“I felt like I was part of his creative universe,” she explains.

“It's like the rabbit hole: you go in there because you think you're part of something.”

This woman remembers that, on one of her birthdays, Vermut spent a good part of the celebration writing on his laptop, sitting in the middle of the living room of his house, while the rest of the guests continued with the party.

“It was the script for

Magical Girl

[the film released in 2014 for which the filmmaker won at the San Sebastián film festival],” he points out.

“He finished it there, closed the laptop and told me: 'This is your birthday present.'”

Afterwards, they began to see each other less and less, although they kept in touch, especially through their mutual friends, he explains.

They met again one night in August 2013, at the filmmaker's house.

“We were no longer the same.

Carlos was already making films [by then he had released

Diamond Flash,

from 2011] and I had changed my job sector,” he acknowledges.

That night, according to her story, they entered the room of the house that the filmmaker shared with the same two people in the first testimony collected in this investigation, although she does not remember if there was anyone else there.

“I came in because I wanted to.

But what happened was violence for violence.

Humiliation for humiliation.

There was nothing erotic there, there was no game, it was one person crushing the other, just like that,” she says.

This woman describes “beatings, strangulations, humiliation in her words...”.

And she adds: “I remember I vomited in the room, he was aware and did nothing.”

After that meeting, he says he felt “shame, guilt and disgust.”

“I told myself that she had to erase what had happened, cancel it,” she continues.

“I don’t even remember us talking about it.”

She assures that she tried to continue with the same friendship they had had until that night and for a time they spoke by

email

sporadically.

The cultural manager explains that over time she decided to train in sexology.

“I was worried, this is still the most unpleasant experience I've ever had and I needed to know why these things happen,” she says.

“I have never experienced a situation like that again and I have had erotic encounters of all kinds.”

More information

The Ministry of Culture will create an office to assist victims of sexist violence

Testimony 3. From March 2023 to January 2024. Madrid

In March 2023, after exchanging several

likes

on Instagram for weeks, this actress says that one day Vermut wrote her a message on that social network.

Until then, he explains that they had only met on a couple of occasions, such as at a production company's Christmas party in December 2018. After several messages on Instagram, they exchanged phone numbers: “That's when we started talking.” by Whatsapp".

A month later, they began a romantic relationship that lasted until January of this year, during which she describes that she suffered two episodes of non-consensual sexual violence and “psychological manipulation” since last summer.

“I gradually lost my will, it was nullified,” she says.

The actress, who prefers not to say her age to protect her identity, remembers that when she met him she thought: “What a nice, kind and smiling guy.

He was like crouching,” she describes while simulating the position in which she remembers Vermut sitting in front of her in a restaurant in Madrid: with his back hunched and his arms between his legs.

“He even changed his voice, it was very soft,” she imitates him.

They continued to meet, she explains: “We didn't sleep or make out.”

On April 2, 2023, the actress went out to party with Vermut and some of her friends in the Usera neighborhood, in the capital, as she remembers.

That night she ended up at her house.

It was the first time they slept together, she says.

“We started to have a kind of relationship,” she declares.

“We saw each other like once a week.”

Vermut would go to visit her in her neighborhood and the place where she worked when she had breaks in acting.

The filmmaker knew her work situation, the projects in which this woman participated.

“My work never depended on him and I made it clear to him from the beginning.

Although at the same time I was very aware that he is a recognized person in the film industry, better positioned than me,” she says, and emphasizes that she is also aware of the power that the director's friends have in the sector.

He remembers that Vermut once told him: “I know I do this [snaps his fingers] and that person is out of work for six years.”

Her representative, when she told him about some of the problems she was beginning to have with Vermouth, warned her: “Don't fight with him either, it's not good for us.”

EL PAÍS has contacted her and confirmed that he recommended that she get out of that situation “several times.”

The relationship, says the actress, underwent a change starting in October 2023. She assures that Vermut began to be more violent in sexual relations.

“One day I arrived at his house and without saying a word he grabbed me by the hair and slammed me against the wall.

“He used me,” she describes.

On another occasion, she explains: “We were on the couch and [while they were having sex] he was hitting me hard with his neck against the seat.

It hurt me.

I tried to move, but he wouldn't budge.

There was a moment when I tried to get up and it went thump,” she recalls, and she slams the table to simulate the moment he pressed her head down hard.

“He pressed me tighter against the couch,” she says.

She tried to distance herself from Vermut from that moment on, as EL PAÍS has seen through their conversations on WhatsApp.

“At first he told me that he loved me.

She referred to me as hottie, but then she disappeared.”

When she asked him about her absences, the filmmaker, she explains, changed her voice: “she became more aggressive” and described her as “exaggerated.”

This newspaper has fragments of those conversations.

This situation, she says, caused her “a lot of anxiety.”

The interpreter began to measure her words: “You start to think that maybe he is right and that it is your fault.”

Vermut also repeated that they were just “friends.”

And on more than one occasion he ended the relationship.

“I gradually lost my will,” she says.

The actress describes another episode from June 2023 in which, she claims, she did not consent to the type of sexual relationship and expressed it physically.

“We were in bed and he started putting his fingers in my ass.

I moved away.

She grabbed my waist and did it again.

I moved away again and he grabbed me tightly again.

I tried to avoid him four times,” she recalls.

“He used me like a rag.

And I thought I liked that.

But no, this guy raped me,” she says.

The last time he saw him was on the morning of January 1, 2024. He arrived at the filmmaker's house after midnight for what he believed was going to be a New Year's Eve party with several people, which is what the invitation implied, according to has been able to credit this newspaper.

There he met Vermut and a woman he didn't know, he remembers.

He assures that she felt “in a trap.”

“That girl was exactly like me, she could be my little sister,” he explains.

They had sexual relations in a way that he defines as “perverse.”

“She was playing with both of us, she didn't care that we felt uncomfortable, that we got angry,” he explains.

“When I asked him to explain everything, he started to get nervous and told me that the person he had arranged to meet was her and not me.

And there she destroyed me,” he recalls.

He claims that that same morning he decided to end the relationship permanently.

He left Vermut's apartment that morning, he says.

He took a taxi to his.

“I brushed my teeth, I felt very disgusted,” she says, and she went to the house of one of her friends, as EL PAÍS has been able to verify through a WhatsApp audio sent from there and from interviews with her friends.

“I was in bed for 10 days.

“I only left my apartment for what was strictly necessary.”

On the third day, she got worried and called 016 (the telephone number for legal advice on gender violence).

"They told me that they couldn't help me because I had gone up to their house voluntarily, that if they hadn't forced me... I told them that I had informed me of their way of manipulating me and they answered that it was better not to look on the Internet," he continues. .

“Then I thought: 'If you don't believe me, who the hell is going to believe me?'”

This newspaper has had access to this woman's cell phone, but calls to 016 do not leave a record in the call list of some devices.

Since that moment his psychologist has diagnosed him with insomnia, hypervigilance—“I am in a constant state of alert”—and anxiety.

She has had “suicidal thoughts,” according to her.

She has gone to a psychiatrist, who has prescribed her an anxiolytic.

“The first thing you feel is that you were to blame, you feel shame because in some way you believe that you brought this on yourself.

Now I know not.”

This woman has gone to an office of the Madrid City Council for comprehensive care for victims of sexual violence, according to this newspaper.

Telephone 016 assists victims of sexist violence, their families and those around them 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in 53 different languages.

The number is not registered on the telephone bill, but the call must be deleted from the device.

You can also contact them by email at

016-online@igualdad.gob.es

and by WhatsApp at 600 000 016. Minors can contact the ANAR Foundation by calling 900 20 20 10. If it is an emergency situation, You can call 112 or the National Police (091) and Civil Guard (062) telephone numbers.

And if you cannot call, you can use the ALERTCOPS application, from which an alert signal is sent to the Police with geolocation.

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