‘No doubt’ kiss Luis Rubiales gave Jenni Hermoso was not consensual, court told | Spain women’s football team

There is no doubt the kiss Luis Rubiales gave Jenni Hermoso after her triumph with Spain at the 2023 Women’s World Cup was non-consensual, a court has been told.

Rubiales is standing trial for sexual assault in Spain after being forced to resign as president of Spain’s football federation in disgrace after the incident.

The scandal prompted a global outcry and thrust the spotlight on the prevalence of macho culture and sexism in sport and beyond.

Prosecutors are seeking two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, 47, one year for sexual assault and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay the incident.

The player says she did not consent to the kiss. Rubiales has always denied wrongdoing and says the act was consensual.

“It was an unwanted kiss: I believe that after the examination carried out [during the trial], there is no doubt, or at least not sufficient reasonable doubt,” the public prosecutor, Marta Durantez Gil, told the court before repeating the sentencing demands.

There was no history of animosity between Hermoso and Rubiales that could have led the player to “not tell the truth about what happened at the time of the kiss”, Gil said, adding there was “total consistency between the facts she recounted and her immediate and subsequent behaviour”.

Rubiales told Spain’s national court on Tuesday he was “totally sure” Hermoso consented to the kiss during the medal ceremony after the final. “She squeezed me very tightly under my armpits, she lifted me, and when I came down I asked her if I can give you a kiss, and she said: ‘OK.’ That’s what happened,” he said.

Rubiales conceded he had made a mistake on the podium and that his behaviour was not appropriate, saying he should have “been in a more institutional role”, but denied any offence had been committed.

Hermoso told the opening day of the trial she felt “disrespected” after a non-consensual kiss that “should not happen in any social or work setting”.

The player, who plays club football for the Mexican side Tigres, has since appeared for Spain, but the scandal cast a shadow over the team’s World Cup victory.

The high-profile trial, which got under way in San Fernando de Henares, near Madrid, on 3 February, is expected to wrap up on Thursday.