Magaluf hotel where ‘Brit, 18, was gang-raped by six men’ breaks its silence as it vows to show ‘solidarity with the alleged victim’
- Spanish police said on Wednesday that they had arrested five French tourists and a Swiss holidaymaker on suspicion of sexually assaulting the British woman
- They allegedly attacked her in a hotel on Monday and filmed it on their phones
- The BH Mallorca Resort said today that it ‘deeply regrets what has happened’
The Magaluf hotel where a British teenager was allegedly gang-raped has said it is cooperating fully with investigators and offered its support to the alleged victim.
Six holidaymakers – five French men and one Swiss national all in their twenties – were arrested on Monday over the alleged sex attack at the BH Mallorca Resort and remanded in custody following a court appearance on Tuesday.
A criminal probe led by the Civil Guard and coordinated by a local investigating magistrate in the Mallorcan capital Palma is ongoing.
Police have been given CCTV footage by the hotel and have obtained mobile phone footage of the alleged gang-rape said to have been recorded by the suspects.
Today the hotel where the alleged incident occurred in the early hours of Monday made its first comments on the case.
A spokesman said in a statement: ‘The BH Mallorca Resort deeply regrets what has happened and would like to manifest its firm and forceful repudiation of the alleged sexual attack that occurred in the early hours of Monday August 14 at the hotel.
‘The hotel also wants to demonstrate its solidarity with the alleged victim of this aggression.
The Magaluf hotel where a British teenager was allegedly gang-raped has said it is cooperating fully with investigators and offered its support to the alleged victim. Pictured: The BH Mallorca Resort
A young British woman who was allegedly raped by six men in Magaluf was found to have grip marks on her arms after the incident, according to reports. In the first pictures of the six men, one of the suspects held his head down (pictured) as he was led into a court in the Majorcan capital Palma in handcuffs by a Civil Guard officer
Spanish police said on Wednesday that they had arrested five French tourists and a Swiss holidaymaker on suspicion of sexually assaulting the woman. Pictured: Two of the men are seen being led into court on Wednesday, making little effort to hide their faces
‘We are co-operating fully with the Civil Guard and its investigators in everything they consider to be necessary.
‘This hotel ratifies through this statement its commitment to the condemnation of all types of sexual attacks that affect peoples’ dignity and physical integrity. Behaviour that undermines those rights has no place in this establishment.’
The hotel said it would be making no further comment for the time being.
Earlier in the day it was reported a security guard came to the rescue of the 18-year-old Brit after finding her sobbing on the floor in the lobby followed the alleged gang-rape.
He called police after finding her around 5am on Monday, recalling how he just come in for his morning shift and describing the police response as very quick and efficient.
The woman was allegedly raped after agreeing to go to back to one of the rooms of the group of foreign tourists, who were staying at the hotel, after reportedly meeting them at a party.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard confirmed earlier this week: ‘I can confirm we are investigating an alleged gang-rape at a hotel in Magaluf.
Two of the suspects are seen being led into court by a Spanish officer. The hotel where the alleged incident took place has broken its silence
One of the suspects is seen being led by two officers into court on Wednesday
‘We were alerted by the hotel in the early hours of Monday morning after the alleged victim raised the alarm.
‘One set of officers took her to hospital so she could be examined by a doctor and another team of officers set about trying to locate the alleged aggressors.
‘They were arrested over the following hours. The investigation is ongoing and involves a team of officers specialising in probing alleged sex crimes in Magaluf.
READ MORE: British woman, 19, ‘is raped on a beach’ during holiday on Greek island of Ios
‘Five of the men arrested are French and the sixth suspect is a Swiss national. They are all in their twenties.’
A well-placed insider confirmed the alleged victim was a British tourist aged 18 and said she had given a statement after alerting police to a judge in court in a hearing held behind closed doors. Her current whereabouts is unclear.
Investigators later confirmed all six men, hauled to court in handcuffs on Tuesday, were remanded in custody.
The insider said: ‘They are currently in prison in Majorca and will remain there for the foreseeable future pending any successful attempts by a defence lawyer to secure their release on bail.
‘The decision to remand them in custody would not have been taken lightly. It doesn’t prove the men did what the alleged victim is claiming they did but it indicates officials have good reason to believe a sexual assault has taken place.
‘The woman who alleges she was gang-raped ratified what she told the police in a court statement.’
Unconfirmed local reports say grip marks were found on the British teenager’s arms during the hospital examination by a medic.
Investigators have already looked at CCTV images the hotel has provided and carried out an inspection of the room where the alleged gang rape.
Police today confirmed they were in possession of video footage of the alleged sex attack seized from the suspects’ phones which is expected to play a key role in any subsequent decision by the courts to charge the men and put them on trial.
They have not yet been charged with any crime as is normal in Spain where formal charges are only laid shortly before trial. At this stage they are ‘investigados’ in an ongoing criminal probe, which means they are under formal investigation.
The four-star adults-only BH Mallorca Resort describes itself as the ‘best accommodation option in Magaluf’ on its website. It has its own beach club with over 100 VIP beds, a DJ booth and dancefloor.
A Civil Guard spokesman said at lunchtime today: ‘The investigation is ongoing. There is nothing else we can say at this moment in time.’
The BH Mallorca has racked up a list of shocking incidents over the years.
A number of young British tourists have either been killed or injured falling from the hotel’s balconies, and in 2018 four Brits started a huge fire at the same complex.
Also in 2018, police were probing two separate alleged sex attacks on British holiday makers in Magaluf, one of which occurred at the same hotel.
Monday’s shocking incident comes days after a British teenage boy was allegedly sexually assaulted by a taxi driver in the back of a cab in the same town on August 11.
The 17-year-old is understood to have gone to a police station with his mother where he told officers the driver began touching him on the way back to his hotel, before demanding the youngster perform a sex act on him.
He was then physically assaulted as he tried to flee, reports said.
Elsewhere, earlier this month, a 21-year-old British woman told Greek police that she was raped by an Israeli man after meeting him in a nightclub in Athens.
The woman met the suspected rapists on Monday night and later went to the hotel room of one of the suspects in Magaluf (pictured, file photo), where she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the six, the police press office in Mallorca cited the alleged victim’s statement as saying
The young tourist was allegedly attacked at the man’s home in the early hours the previous week after a night out in the Keramikos area.
She told police that during the sexual assault, the man’s three friends appeared out of nowhere and filmed her with their mobile phones.
The woman, who had been partying with her friend from Portugal beforehand, told the group she was leaving but the man refused to stop the act, according to local media.
After a struggle the woman managed to escape the property and told police of the incident. A case has been filed against the Israeli man for rape.
Just last month another British tourist accused a 47-year-old Greek man of raping her in a hotel while on holiday on the island of Rhodes, according to local media.
The 21-year-old said she was attacked at around 2am on July 3 in Pefkos and made a complaint to the local police hours later, prompting a case to be opened.
According to Greece’s ANT1News, the young woman’s lawsuit claims the older man took her from a ‘health care store’ in Lindos, found on the south of the island, to a hotel in Pefkos – the main city on the island that sits around 15 miles from Turkey.
There, the outlet reports, the woman claims the man forced her to have sex with him through threats of physical violence.
Upon making her complaint, the police asked a medical examiner to carry out an assessment, ANT1News said.
She handed over the clothes she was wearing on the night which were reportedly sent to Greece’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations for DNA testing.
According to the same publication, a second British woman made a complaint over an incident in Faliraki – seven miles south of Pefkos – 24 hours earlier.
It reports that the 18-year-old British tourist was attacked in the early hours on Sunday, July 2, at a nightclub in the popular destination.
In yet another grim case, a 21-year-old British tourist was allegedly raped after she was dragged into bushes on a popular Algarve holiday beach last month.
The woman told police the sex attack took place on the sand by a walkway at Praia da Rocha beach in the municipality of Portimao.
And last month, two Irishmen were arrested on suspicion of raping a British tourist in a hotel in Magaluf – the same resort town as Monday’s alleged incident.
The Briton, who has not been named, told police she had been sexually assaulted by the two men in a hotel room in Calvia by Magaluf in the early hours of July 19.
Source: Read Full Article
