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The family of footballer, Neymar reportedly helped Dani Alves to pay a £128,000 fine in his rape case, which helped to mitigate the sentence handed to the former Barcelona defender.
The 40-year-old Brazilian footballer was jailed for four-and-a-half years on Thursday, February 22, after being convicted of raping a woman at a Spanish nightclub.
Alves had been held on remand at Brians 2 Prison near the Catalan capital since his arrest in January 2023.
State prosecutors wanted him jailed for nine years and a lawyer acting for his victim had demanded he was caged for 12 years if convicted.
However, a ‘mitigating factor’ in his sentencing was a pre-payment of the £128,000 (€150,000) he was ordered to give his victim as compensation.
According to Brazilian outlet UOL, the family of Neymar, who played alongside the defender at Barcelona, PSG, and Brazil, allegedly helped Alves to pay the fine.
The report claims the amount, which the Spanish Court ordered Alves to pay, is to be given to the victim for moral damages and injuries caused by the ordeal, with it playing a large role in reducing the length of the sentence.
Neymar’s family also reportedly lent Gustavo Xisto, one of the most senior legal representatives of the Al-Hilal star’s father, to help Alves in the case.
Alves, whose lawyer confirmed today she would appeal the sentencing, protested his innocence on February 7 after taking the stand on the last day of his three-day trial at Barcelona’s Audiencia Provincial court.
The UOL report also claims that the one year and one month Alves has spent on remand in prison already will contribute to the overall sentence.
As well as prison and the £128,000 (€150,000) damages payment, Alves was given a further five years parole and a nine-and-a-half year restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim or going near her.
He claimed he had consensual sex in a toilet at upmarket Barcelona nightclub Sutton in the early hours of December 31, 2022, with his 23-year-old female accuser.
The woman he was today found guilty of raping insisted the footballer had forced himself on her after hitting her when she gave her evidence in court behind a screen.
The three judges concluded she had danced with Alves before going voluntarily to a toilet next to Sutton’s VIP area the footballer had entered moments earlier in what they described as an apparent ‘prior agreement’ to ‘be with him in a more intimate space.’
But outlining what they ruled had been proven and had contributed to them convicting Alves, they added: ‘He tried to penetrate his victim by making use of his greater strength and throwing her on the floor and making her bang her knee.
‘The victim asked Dani Alves to let her leave, making it clear she wanted to get out of there, but he didn’t let her.
‘Finding herself in that situation, in that small toilet without any option of being able to leave because Mr. Alves was preventing her with the violent attitude he was demonstrating, she felt shocked and unable to react or breathe properly given the situation of anguish and terror she was experiencing.’
They added of the toilet rape: ‘Using his physical strength and overcoming his victim’s opposition, Alves bent her over the toilet and raped his victim until he ejaculated inside her, without using a condom and without her consent.’
In a withering attack on the footballer’s actions they said that even if she had got intimate with Alves before accompanying him voluntarily to the toilet, it didn’t mean she was saying ‘yes’ to sex.
‘It didn’t give him carte blanche to carry out the sex attack that occurred afterwards’, they insisted.
‘Consent during sex should always be given before or even during the practice of sex, in such a way that a person can agree to sexual relations up until a certain point and express their opposition to continue.’
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