Pedro Cortés, former president of Valencia, has been sentenced to one year and ten months in jail for sexual abuse of a minor. The ruling comes eight days after the hearing, behind closed doors, which lasted more than four hours. In addition, the sentence imposes a prohibition on contacting the victim by any means (neither in person, electronically or by any other means) for the next three years. In the same way, a restraining order of 200 meters is imposed on the minor.
The facts date back to November 22, 2020. The Prosecutor’s Office requested two years in prison, while the private prosecution asked for two and a half years, which would have led to a probable admission to a prison. Precisely, with the sentence imposed, everything indicates that the former Valencian leader will avoid imprisonment.
The investigation was launched as a result of a complaint by a player from the black and white youth academy for facts that Pedro Cortés has always denied. The indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office is forceful. It indicates that in its day “a relationship of trust” was forged between the former president and the young player, who at the time of the event was 16 years old: “As on other occasions, the defendant, on 11.22.2020 invited the minor, to eat together with his family, so that around 1:00 p.m. on the aforementioned day he picked up the minor at the Ciudad Deportiva del Valencia, both traveling to the Casa Roberto Restaurant in the city of Valencia, where they ate with other relatives of the accused.”
Then, presumably, the former president of Valencia made the following comment: “At one point during the meal, the defendant with a libidinous mood approached the minor’s ear, and whispered ‘I’m going to eat you whole’, although the meal continued normally”.
After lunch, the leader and the youth player shared a vehicle to return to Paterna: «Pedro Cortés García, together with the minor, went in his vehicle again to the Valencia CF Sports City where the minor resides; In the aforementioned journey, at a given moment, the defendant, guided by his libidinous spirit, while keeping his left hand on the wheel of the vehicle, placed his right hand on the minor’s left thigh, beginning to massage him in a circular motion, moving his hand accused up to the minor’s genital area, placing it on his penis, at which point the minor removed the defendant’s hand, who then told the minor “there is only one life and you have to enjoy it.”
At the end of the trial held on February 23, Juan Antonio Frago, Pedro Cortés’ lawyer, has recognized one of the arguments that they have used during the hearing, that of the regulatory change: “He has been accused of a crime that is repealed by the Montero law, the law of only yes is yes, with which we expect a prompt acquittal. He (Pedro Cortés) has said everything he had to say ». “I am calm, very calm”, have been the only statements of the one who was a delegate of the Spanish team.
Mariano Oliver, the plaintiff’s lawyer, has been equally forceful but from the other extreme, convinced that Pedro Cortés will be sentenced for the accusation of sexual abuse that has put him on the bench this Thursday, understanding that the change The normative continues to classify what happened as sexual abuse without consent (now referred to as assault): «In our judgment it has been made clear that there is sufficient evidence for the prosecution to obtain a conviction. There was already a summary statement where he recognized WhatsApp, they are unquestionable things. The content of those messages is not that they are inappropriate, it is that they are obscene. He has denied that he had caused those touching in the vehicle but there is a series of evidence that corroborates the testimony of the minor. The kid wants to turn the page on a stage that has been complicated. He is under 16 years of age when the events occurred, and he has had a gallantry that no one can dispute, when facing a very influential person in the world of football and you decide that there is a red line that cannot be crossed. He took a brave step ».
