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Spanish justice ruled this Tuesday, June 25, that a kiss given “without express or tacit consent” constituted sexual assault.
“A ‘stolen kiss’, and therefore without express or tacit consent, constitutes sexual assault”, indicates in a press release the Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the country, confirming a first judgment of an Andalusian court which had sentenced to one year and nine months in prison a police officer who kissed a woman in police custody.
For the Supreme Court, “it is obvious that the fleeting contact of a non-consensual kiss represents a bodily invasion of the aggressor on the victim”.
“The key is consent, to the point that if there was none, there was sexual assault,” the Court further indicates.
Judged next February
The former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, will be tried from February 3 to 19, 2025 in Madrid for having kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth in August 2023 in Sydney, after the team’s coronation of Spain football during the Women’s World Cup.
The prosecution, which presents its submissions in Spain before the start of the trial, announced that it would request two and a half years in prison against Mr. Rubiales: one year for sexual assault and one and a half years for the pressure exerted on the player so that she affirms that the kiss was consensual.
Luis Rubiales’ gesture caused a wave of indignation in Spain and abroad, forcing him to resign the following month.
He always claimed that Jenni Hermoso consented, but this version was denied by the player, who claimed to have felt “vulnerable and victim (…) of an impulsive and sexist act, inappropriate and without any consent from (His part”.
