New setback for the defense of footballer Dani Alves, who has been in custody since January 20 for allegedly raping a 23-year-old girl in a bathroom at Sutton nightclub in central Barcelona in the early hours of December 31. The former FC Barcelona player assured the judge on the day of his arrest that the victim performed fellatio on him, but the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences has confirmed that the biological remains found intravaginally belong to the player, said the advanced El Periódico and confirmed EL PAÍS.
DNA tests have confirmed that Alves lied in his third version of events. That same night, the young woman went to the Hospital Clínic, where they conducted a forensic examination and found sperm in her vagina. For his part, Alves has accepted that samples of his genetic material will be taken, according to his court statement, before he is placed in preventive detention. The Mossos d’Esquadra obtained semen samples from three other locations: the bathroom floor, the underwear and the dress the young woman was wearing the night of the alleged sexual assault. They all match Alves’ DNA.
The judge who ordered the Brazilian athlete’s provisional detention believes he changed his version “up to three times”: first denying any sexual encounter, then defending that she fellatio him . The defense acknowledged that the testimony was “jumpy,” but argued that he didn’t want his wife and children to know he was having sexual relations with another woman.
His lawyer appealed to the Barcelona court against the investigating judge’s order to place him in pre-trial detention, while prosecutors opposed the Barcelona court’s provisional release of Alves as the risk of absconding persists and the evidence remains incriminating. The Brazilian soccer player remains in a sex offenders’ module at Brians 2 prison in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, some 40 kilometers from Barcelona.
Now the court has to decide whether the player will be released as a precaution until the trial. Or if, as the investigating court found, there is a clear risk of absconding. The footballer’s defense claims that the nightclub images question the victim’s story and insist the young woman “go to the door without Dani Alves letting her through or opening the door” where the crime was committed. And it proposes all kinds of measures to ensure their presence every time it is requested by the judge, such as: .
The previous witness statements in court and the police investigations support the complaint against the footballer. Two friends of the victim of the rape accused of Alves also pointed at the player. One of the women said in her testimony that Alves touched her vaginal area while they were all in the VIP room, although she declined to report the facts. The other woman called the ex-Barça winger “slimy” and said he wrapped his arms around her waist.