Real Madrid’s Raul Asencio and the sex-tape allegations against him – key questions answered

On Wednesday it was confirmed that the Real Madrid defender Raul Asencio could face criminal proceedings for allegedly sharing a sex tape involving a minor.

Three former Madrid youth players are also facing potential charges in the case. It centres on the filming, allegedly without consent, of a sexual encounter in the private area of a beach club in the Canary Islands in June 2023, as well as the alleged distribution of the video, again without consent.

Asencio, 22, has been a regular in Madrid’s first team after being promoted from the club’s ‘B’ team during an injury crisis in defence, making 40 appearances for Carlo Ancelotti’s side this season.

He started in Madrid’s 2-1 win against Real Mallorca at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday evening, just after a Spanish court’s decision to move forward with the case was made public.

So what are the allegations against Asencio, who else is involved and what has the reaction been like in Spain? The Athletic spoke to sources with knowledge of the situation, who all asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about an ongoing legal case, to explain. This is also why comments are turned off on this article.

What’s alleged to have happened?

The events under investigation took place in Puerto Rico, a town on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, on June 15, 2023, where five players from Real Madrid’s youth academy were on holiday.

There, at the Amadores Beach Club seaside resort, a consensual sexual encounter took place between three of the players and two girls, one of whom was 18 years old, the other under the age of 16.

The case focuses on the alleged recording and sharing of a video of this sexual encounter made on the mobile phone of one of the players, allegedly without consent.

How did the allegations emerge?

A complaint was filed by the younger of the girls, accompanied by her mother, at Guardia Civil offices in the town of Santa Maria de Guia, close to Las Palmas in the north of Gran Canaria, on September 6, 2023.

Subsequently, the second alleged victim also filed a complaint.

According to their testimony that was leaked in Spanish media in 2023, when the girls found out they had been recorded, that same day they asked the players involved to delete the footage.

One of the girls also said, speaking anonymously in an interview with Spanish newspaper Diario AS in September 2023, that the players told them they would delete the footage but had instead “transferred it to other mobiles”.

According to their leaked testimony, the girls also said they did not find out until August that the footage still existed and was allegedly being shared. They said they found out the footage had not been deleted when a boyfriend of one of their friends, also a member of the Real Madrid C team, told them he had seen the video.

On September 15, 2023, several Guardia Civil police officers turned up at Real Madrid’s training facilities, dressed in civilian clothes. There, they asked the director of the youth academy, Manuel Fernandez, to accompany them to the changing rooms.

Asencio, pictured at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Three players were arrested — Ferran Ruiz, Juan Rodriguez, and Andres Garcia — while Asencio was first questioned as a witness. During the taking of statements, Asencio went from being a witness to being investigated as a suspect.

Ruiz, Rodriguez and Garcia are facing charges over allegedly recording and distributing videos of sexual content of a minor and one other woman. Asencio is facing a charge of allegedly sharing a sex tape involving a minor.

On Wednesday, a statement by a court in Gran Canaria confirmed an investigation into the allegations had concluded. It said the players’ actions could allegedly constitute “crimes of discovery of secrets without consent and violation of privacy”, “distribution and sending to third parties of the videos without warning the victims or their consent”, “recruitment or use of minors for pornographic purposes and possession of the videos without their consent” and “possession of the videos without the consent of the victims”.

The Athletic reported in February that a Spanish court rejected an appeal on behalf of Asencio for the provisional dismissal of the case. Court documents during that appeal confirmed that one of the women was under the age of 16 when the incident took place.

What has Asencio said?

While Asencio stayed at Madrid, Ruiz, Rodriguez and Garcia all left the club last summer. Ruiz moved to Girona of La Liga while Rodriguez and Garcia signed for Tarazona and Alcorcon, teams in Spain’s regionalised third tier.

Beyond some brief comments made to Television Espanola when he was called up by Spain for the first time in March — “Everyone is very aware of what they are doing, so I am very calm” — Asencio had not publicly addressed the allegation against him in detail until Thursday evening.

In a statement, he also addressed an error made in a court document whose details had been reported in Spanish media. In the document, authored by the judge who has been overseeing the case, it was said Asencio faced the same charges as the three other defendants. The judge later corrected this to state he faced the single charge of allegedly sharing a sex tape involving a minor.

Asencio has become a key player for Real Madrid this season (Diego Souto/Getty Images)

“I have not participated in any behavior that violated the sexual freedom of any woman, much less of minors,” Asencio’s statement read.

“The court order, as far as I am concerned, limits its content to the possible momentary viewing of some images by a third party, without attributing to me any participation in their recording or dissemination.”

“The accusation made against me, as expressly stated in the court decision itself, is strictly provisional in nature. Therefore, the presumption of innocence must continue to prevail. In the event that charges are finally brought and an oral trial is opened, I will continue to exercise my defence before the Courts and Tribunals, in which I maintain full confidence, reaffirming that I am not involved in any criminal conduct.”

What will happen next?

Wednesday’s announcement by the court in Gran Canaria signalled its intention to take the case to trial. Asencio and his fellow defendants now have two chances to appeal: first to the judge who is ruling on the case and secondly to a superior body in case they do not agree with that initial decision.

If a trial does take place, it is unclear when it would start, although in Spain similar cases have previously taken several months to reach that stage, with some cases even taking up to a year or more.

It is also unclear whether Asencio would be tried by a provincial court or by a criminal court. That depends on whether the private prosecution (a prosecution brought by the complainants) or the public prosecutors’ office ask for more than five years in prison for the alleged offences mentioned above.

Article 197.3 of Spain’s criminal code says the alleged offences in Asencio’s case can carry potential punishment of between one and five years in prison, depending on the severity. If they do go to trial, Asencio and the other defendants would have to physically appear in court.

Who is Raul Asencio?

Asencio is a centre-back who joined Madrid’s academy in 2017 from Las Palmas. He was playing for the club’s reserve team of youth players, Real Madrid Castilla, in the Spanish third tier, until November.

Asencio started the season with Real Madrid’s reserve side (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

That was when a spate of injuries affected every senior centre-back in the first-team squad, leading to Asencio unexpectedly breaking into the starting XI. He has remained there as injuries continue to bite — all of Ancelotti’s first-choice back four are sidelined and centre-back Eder Militao has been out with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury since November. Asencio has featured in crucial Champions League games against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal.

Will he carry on playing?

Since it has not yet been confirmed whether the case will go to trial and Ascencio is denying the charge against him, Real Madrid are unlikely to take any immediate action.

The investigation started in September 2023 — when Asencio was still playing for Castilla — and the player has not been removed from the team at any point since in relation to the case. The only exception was on December 21, 2023, when club sources said the player was withdrawn from a first-team squad for a La Liga match away to Deportivo Alaves because he had to testify in the investigation the following day.

Centre-backs Militao, Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba are all still out with injuries, although they are aiming to return for the revamped Club World Cup in the United States. And despite Madrid being in the process of finalising a deal for Bournemouth defender Dean Huijsen and Ancelotti making way for a new coach, with Xabi Alonso the frontrunner, Asencio is expected to continue to play a key role in the short term.

Asencio was called up to the Spain squad for the first time in March (Irina R. Hipolito/Europa Press via Getty Images)

According to article 22 of FIFA’s Club World Cup regulations, players may be called up to the tournament if they are “not be subject to a disciplinary sanction that affects the fulfilment of the call-up requirements to participate in the official matches of the competition”, so Asencio would be eligible to be called up by Real Madrid.

Asencio is unlikely to face any problems in playing for Spain either, as Spanish FA sources point to there being no final verdict against the player. In any case, he may not be called up for the country’s upcoming Nations League matches anyway for sporting reasons — head coach Luis de la Fuente has lots of confidence in his regular centre-backs Aymeric Laporte, Dani Vivian, Huijsen, Pau Cubarsi and Robin Le Normand.

What have Real Madrid said?

When the investigation became public knowledge in September 2023, Madrid issued a statement which said they had “learned that a player from Castilla and three players from Real Madrid C have given statements to the Guardia Civil in relation to a complaint about the alleged dissemination of a private video via WhatsApp”. They added: “When the club has detailed knowledge of the facts, it will take the appropriate measures.”

Madrid have not publicly commented since.

Club sources previously consulted by The Athletic pointed to the presumption of innocence — a key principle of criminal law in Spain enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — when asked about Asencio’s situation.

What has the reaction been in Spain?

Asencio has become increasingly well known since making his Madrid debut, so it was no surprise to see all the Spanish press carrying news of the Gran Canaria court’s statement this week.

But there has been no official statement from any political or public body, given there are still steps left for the case to go to trial.

In recent months some fans at Spanish stadiums, including Real Sociedad’s Reale Arena and Deportivo Alaves’ Mendizorroza ground, have chanted death threats against the defender.

In March, manager Carlo Ancelotti said he was not considering dropping Asencio to protect him after he was targeted during the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final tie at Real Sociedad. “No, no, no,” Ancelotti said. “This (the insults) is what shouldn’t be happening.”

Referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez decided to stop that match momentarily after captain Vinicius Junior spoke to him to activate La Liga’s anti-hate protocol. A message was read out over the loudspeakers asking fans not to shout insults and Sanchez Martinez included the incident in his report from the game. That protocol was also activated in the game against Alaves.

(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

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