“When she touched me, I saw that there was a sexual attraction there and I told her let's go to the bathroom
,” said former soccer player
Dani Alves
this Wednesday before the court that is trying him for the alleged sexual assault that a 24-year-old girl reported in her against what happened in the early hours of January 31, 2022 and why he has been in prison for more than a year.
With tears involved, the Brazilian insisted that he had
consensual sex with her
.
And that that night he had drunk too much.
It was on a day in which, in addition, there were skills that could favor him.
The accusation against the former Barça defender is for a rape that he allegedly committed in the early hours of December 31, 2022 in a booth at the Sutton disco in Barcelona.
In court, Alves admitted that the sexual relationship he had with the girl was consensual and without any type of violence.
Guided by the questions of his defense lawyer, Inés Guardiola, Alves reviewed what his night on December 30, 2022 was like and what happened at the Sutton nightclub.
Lawyer Inés Guardiola, defender of former Brazilian player Dani Alves.
Photo: EFE/ Alberto Estévez / ***POOL***
He stated that he arrived at the club at 2:30 in the morning and that the bottle of Japanese whiskey seen in the videos of the bowling alley had been brought from the restaurant where he had dined with friends.
She said they had also drunk five bottles of wine.
Alves stated that, as a Sutton customer, he was offered booth 6, which is the one with a small bathroom near the table.
He said that first two girls came to dance with him and his friend.
And then three others, among whom was the young woman who reported him.
“Did the girls ever seem uncomfortable?”
, asked his lawyer Inés Guardiola.
“No, not uncomfortable at all. The waiter served them the champagne we had ordered
,” said Alves.
“The complainant and I started dancing closer together. She started to twerk and we began to get more intimate, he declared. Yes, she put her hands on my private parts. When she touched me I saw that there was a sexual attraction there and I told her let's go to the bathroom
. "
"Did she say yes?" his defender questioned him.
"Yes," Alves replied flatly.
"Did you have to insist?" added the lawyer.
Dani Alves.
Photo: EFE/ Alberto Estévez / ***POOL***
"Not at all," the footballer concluded.
“When we entered (the bathroom) we started kissing and I sat on the toilet and she started giving me fellatio.
The position she tried to explain is the one I had practically all the time
,” he insisted, while he recreated it in her chair.
-
Did the complainant tell you that she wanted to leave?
-
Not at all.
-
Did you prevent him from leaving?
Do I slap her?
-
Never.
I'm not that kind of man.
Not at all.
-
At some point did he tell you that he didn't want to have sex with you?
-
At no time did he say anything to me.
Due to the complaint, which the young woman made last year, Alves has been in preventive detention since January 20, 2023.
His first release from the prison in more than a year was on Monday, February 5: when he was transferred to the Catalan capital to attend the oral trial that continues, until this Wednesday, at the Barcelona Court.
If the court finds him guilty, Alves could spend between 9 and 12 years in a cell.
The defense asks for acquittal
The former footballer's defense asked that he be acquitted.
Or that it is considered that he had drunk too much that night and that he is then sentenced
to one year in prison and 50 thousand euros for civil liability for what happened
.
The Prosecutor's Office and the lawyer of the young woman who reported the rape are asking for compensation of 150 thousand euros.
In the almost twelve months that he has been imprisoned, the 40-year-old Brazilian had already defended himself against the accusation.
Although not always with the same arguments
.
He denied everything at first.
He did it in a video that he sent to a television program from Mexico, where he had a contract with the Pumas club.
He denied even having crossed paths with the girl, but the bowling alley's cameras recorded him walking towards him.
Then, when preventive detention became his daily life and his club Pumas de México had already terminated his contract, he admitted the encounter, although with nuances.
He admitted having had sex with the young woman, then 23 years old, by mutual consent.
“He gave this whole battery of versions because he considered himself unpunished
,” said the prosecutor,
Elizabeth Jiménez
, this Wednesday .
“The victim said that he agreed to go to that place (the bathroom in the booth) but he did not know what it was. She insisted that she wanted to get out of there. "She felt guilty
," the prosecutor added.
Regarding the young woman's testimony, Jiménez defined it as
“an absolutely credible story
. ”
“He was very brave.
And a very strong woman,” the prosecutor concluded.
The private prosecution requests “the maximum penalty”
Ester García
, the lawyer of the girl who reported the rape, insisted on asking for Alves “the maximum sentence” which, in this type of crime, is 12 years.
Ester García.
Photo: EFE/Enric Fontcuberta
He stressed that his client stated from the beginning that she wanted to leave the bathroom in which the former player locked himself with her.
And he relied on the new law of only yes is yes which details that, for there to be no crime, consent is essential in any relationship between two people.
When will the sentence be handed down?
The court now has
twenty days
to issue a ruling.
The congestion caused by the tractor-trailer of farmers angry at how little they are paid for their crops, which this Wednesday flooded the streets of Barcelona, was deflating when Alves was returned to the Brians 2 penitentiary center - 40 minutes from Barcelona -, where he has been sleeping for some time. almost 400 nights.
Alves' mother,
María Lucía
, arrived at the courthouse by taxi an hour before the hearing.
Her lawyer,
Graciele Queiroz
, denied to
Clarín
that the soccer player's mother was among the witnesses summoned to testify at the trial.
Dani Alves' mother, Dona Lucía (2d), with her lawyer, Graciele Queiroz (d), and another of her children (2i), upon arrival at the Barcelona Court where Dani Alves is being tried.
Photo: EFE/Enric Fontcuberta
"It was a confusion. The mother who may have testified was that of the complainant. But both parties, defense and prosecution, ruled it out,”
Queiroz clarified.
Alves' mother, his brother and the family lawyer will fly back to Brazil this Wednesday.
Outside, in front of the Barcelona Court, an eclectic building from the late 19th century, tourists took photos in front of the Arc de Triomphe, one of the few in the world that does not celebrate war triumphs but was built as an entrance to the International Fair of 1888.