Case against ‘la Manada’ has caused outrage as supporters of alleged victim say it appeared as if she was on trial

A verdict is due in the trial of five men accused of gang-rape during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona last year, in a case where it appeared to many of the alleged victim’s supporters in Spain that she was on trial.



The alleged rape occurred in the early hours of 7 July 2016 during the popular San Fermín festival. The woman, an 18-year-old from Madrid, met the five men – one of whom was in the Spanish army – as she was making her way to the car she was sleeping in while staying in the city.



The men, who styled themselves as “la Manada” (the Pack), offered to accompany the woman to the car but instead hauled her into a doorway where it is alleged all five proceeded to rape her while filming the attack on their phones. They then stole her phone and left, it is alleged.

Shortly afterwards, passersby found the woman lying on a bench, crying. She gave descriptions of the men to police, who arrested five suspects the following day.

One of their phones allegedly contained evidence of another attack, this time on an apparently unconscious woman, as well as WhatsApp group messages about obtaining date-rape drugs.

The case has caused outrage in Spain. “The rape victim has been put in the position of demonstrating that she was not responsible for being raped by five men – five,” said Argelia Queralt, a law professor at the University of Barcelona and a specialist in gender issues.

“It’s particularly worrying that in a court case they continue to apply standards that are inappropriate in rape cases, that continue to put the woman in the spotlight, further adding to the harm she has suffered.”



The men’s defence lawyers claimed the woman consented to and even initiated the encounter, having let one of the five kiss her. A key piece of evidence was 96 seconds of video taken from the suspects’ phones which showed the woman immobile and with her eyes shut throughout. The defence claimed that her silence indicated consent.



The prosecution, however, insisted that she had been immobilised by force and by terror. Summing up for the prosecution, Elena Sarasate said: “The defendants want us to believe that on that night they met an 18-year-old girl, living a normal life, who after 20 minutes of conversation with people she didn’t know agreed to group sex involving every type of penetration, sometimes simultaneously, without using a condom.”



If the sex was consensual, why did they steal her phone, Sarasate asked. “The obvious thing would be to exchange phone numbers, not steal her phone.”



There was public anger when the judge accepted as evidence a report compiled by a private detective hired by some of the defendants. The detective had followed the woman over the course of several days and produced photographs of her smiling with friends.



This was presented as evidence that she had not suffered any lasting trauma, prompting hundreds of women to demonstrate outside the court in Pamplona with placards that read: “We believe you, sister”.



The defence also produced as evidence an Instagram photograph shared by the woman of a friend wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Hagas lo que hagas, quítate las bragas” (whatever you do, take your knickers off), a slogan popularised by a female participant in a reality TV show.

“I don’t think these men thought her consent was of any importance and their actions reveal their sense of impunity,” commented the feminist novelist Laura Freixas. “The day after the attack, they went running with the bulls, as if nothing had happened.”



In his summing up, one of the defence lawyers said his clients were the victims of a media witch-hunt. “They may be imbeciles but they are good sons to their families, some of them have jobs … their reputation has been destroyed.”