De Gea’s denial over sex claims
DAVID de Gea said he never considered leaving the Spain squad after being implicated in a sex-abuse case yesterday. The Manchester United keeper said: ‘No one is more surprised by this news than me. It is a lie, completely false and I have never considered leaving the squad.’
De Gea, 25, faced questions just two days before he is expected to start in goal for Spain’s opening match of Euro 2016 against the Czech Republic.
‘This does not affect me,’ he said. ‘I am very relaxed and I just want to go out and play. Very few things affect me and when it is something that is completely untrue, that is even more the case. The first thing I did was inform my family that this is completely false. They already knew that.’
Various media in Spain reported yesterday that a protected witness in a case against pornographer Ignacio Allende Fernandez, known as Torbe, had claimed de Gea set up a date between her, another girl, Athletic Bilbao forward Iker Muniain and one other Spanish Under-21 player in 2012. The sex-abuse case is alleged to involve a minor.
According to Eldiario.es, Torbe, who has been in prison since April and is being investigated for human trafficking with the intention of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, child pornography, prostitution, extortion and money laundering, was in contact with de Gea.
The Eldiario.es report says a protected witness, identified as TP3, made a declaration on June 3, 2015. The Spanish police’s anti human-trafficking unit is understood to be giving her account a ‘high level of credibility’.
According to Eldiario.es the events are explained in a police report as follows: ‘After leaving TP3 in the room with the other girl, Torbe told her she had to be with the players, doing whatever they wanted to do, for which she would be paid a lot of money.
‘When TP3 refused, Torbe took her forcefully by the arm and she was made to agree to do everything they wanted including maintaining sexual relations with the other girl.
‘The new girl and TP3 were sexually abused by the boys and if they refused, they were physically assaulted by both of them. Neither TP3 nor the other girl were paid, with all the money going to Torbe.’
There is no suggestion de Gea was the second player or that he broke any law.