Protests as ‘wolfpack’ gang cleared of rape

FIVE Spanish men accused of gang-raping a girl at Pamplona’s San Fermín festival were yesterday convicted of a lesser crime of sexual abuse, unleashing furious protests over a case that has provoked national debate.

The men’s defence centred on the lack of physical resistance or vocal objection by the Madrid woman, then 18. She was found crying and curled in a fetal position. She said she had been terrified into submission when surrounded by the group.

The defendants in the “La Manada” [wolfpack] trial – the term that José Ángel Prenda, Ángel Boza Florido, Jesús Escudero Domínguez, Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo, and Antonio Manuel Guerrero Escudero used to refer to their group – were cleared of sexual aggression and other charges, which could have resulted in prison terms of more than 20 years. Instead, they were sentenced to nine years in jail for “sexual abuse with undue influence” – a verdict denounced by campaigners as amounting to a licence for rapists.

Thousands of people turned out for evening protests across Spain, chanting “I believe you” and “It was rape” following the ruling, delivered by judges in Pamplona.

The alleged gang rape at the annual Running of the Bulls in 2016 generated global headlines, drawing attention to increasing reports of predatory sexual behaviour at the festival.

The men have already spent almost two years in jail, meaning they may be eligible for release in just over a year.