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A married Irish woman accused of sexually assaulting a tourist nearly 20 years younger than her at their Magaluf holiday hotel has been charged and warned she faces an 18-month prison sentence if convicted.
The woman, now aged 38 but 37 at the time of the alleged assault, was hauled to court after being arrested for allegedly touching a Swedish man’s genitals without his consent in a Turkish steam bath.
The woman spent a night in a police cell before an investigating magistrate released her on bail and said she was free to travel back home pending an ongoing criminal probe.
Public prosecutors have now charged her and indicated they want her to receive a one-and-a-half year jail term if she is convicted at trial.
The sex assault is alleged to have occurred around 6pm at the four-star Hotel Martinique in Magaluf on June 3 when the Irish woman, who lives in County Cork, was still 37 and the younger man just 18.
A three-page indictment outlining prosecutors’ version of events says she sat beside him when she went to its Turkish steam bath after sharing a sauna with him and taking a dip in the hotel pool and ‘with a lustful spirit, taking advantage of the fact that no one else was there and against his will, put her hands on his genitals and fondled them until he said: “No, no, no” and left.’
As well as the prison term, prosecutors want the Irish woman banned from working with minors for two more years than the jail sentence imposed and ordered to pay court costs if convicted.
They also want her to pay her male accuser £440 in compensation.
Two police officers will be called to testify along with the alleged offender and victim.
A married Irish woman accused of sexually assaulting a tourist nearly 20 years younger than her at their Magaluf holiday hotel has been charged
The sex assault is alleged to have occurred around 6pm at the four-star Hotel Martinique in Magaluf on June 3
The possibility of a pre-trial hearing to see whether a plea bargain deal can be agreed has not been ruled out.
Well-placed sources said around the time of the female tourist’s arrest the Swedish man was already in the hotel sauna when she came in and sat near him and struck up a conversation with him after asking him how long he had been in Magaluf.
She left the sauna and took a dip in a swimming pool beside it before following him into the Turkish steam bath according to a police report sent to the investigating court.
He alerted hotel staff who called the police after the alleged assault.
Reports at the time said the Irish woman, who was born in Brazil, was with her husband when cops arrived and took her away.
Well-placed sources confirmed in June she had confessed to touching the Swedish holidaymaker’s genitals when she went to court the day following her arrest after an initial denial to police but insisted it was a misunderstanding and said she thought he was interested in her after small talk. There is no mention of this in the prosecution indictment.
Her lawyer, a well-known Palma-based lawyer called Joan Arbos, said earlier this year he was going to ask for the case against his client to be ‘discontinued’ on the basis he ‘didn’t consider a crime had taken place’.
He could not be reached for comment this morning.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said shortly after the arrest, describing the Swedish man as 20 although the prosecution indictment indicates he was 18 at the time: ‘The alleged sexual aggressor, aged 37, who was in a sauna with a Swedish man aged 20, was accused of touching the victim’s private parts without consent.
‘When officers arrived the victim was visibly upset.
‘After carrying out inquiries, they proceeded to arrest the suspected offender, who was handed over to the courts.’
No date for the trial has yet been set. Prison sentences of two years or less are normally suspended in Spain for first-time offenders.
