Real Madrid star Raul Asencio breaks silence as he faces criminal trial over shocking video of underage girl allegedly having sex with three team-mates
Real Madrid defender Raul Asencio has broken his silence after being indicted along with three former youth players at the club, for the alleged distribution of a sexual video involving a minor.
The 22-year-old football star allegedly solicited a video filmed by team-mates Ferran Ruiz, 22, Andres Garcia, 22, and Juan Rodriguez, 23, in June 2023 which involved a minor and another young girl, aged 16 and 18 respectively at the time.
The players are accused of 'disclosure of secrets without consent, and violation of privacy, distributing and sending videos to third parties without consent, capturing and using minors for pornographic purposes and possession of child pornography'.
The judge in the case later clarified Asencio has not been charged with recording the video but remains indicted on charges of revealing secrets for showing the video to a third party and of child pornography.
Asencio denied the charges in a lengthy released later on Thursday.
'I have not participated in any behaviour that violates the sexual freedom of any woman, much less minors,' he said.
Asencio and the three other players were arrested at Real Madrid's training centre in September 2023 following a complaint lodged by the mother of the 16-year-old girl who appears in the video.
At the time, Spanish media reported that one of the footballers had recorded a consensual sexual encounter with the young girl before sending the video to the other players without her consent.
The Real star's full statement read: 'Following the clarification issued today by the head of the Investigating Court No. 3 of San Bartolomé de Tirajana—in which the initial indictment order was amended, expressly excluding me from both the recording of videos with sexual content and the events that were the subject of said recording—and in view of the public dissemination of information related to said procedure, I wish to state the following:
'1. I have not participated in any behavior that violates the sexual freedom of any woman, much less that of minors.
'This is confirmed by the ruling issued by the aforementioned Court, which does not accuse me of having had sexual relations with the two women involved, nor of having recorded them, with or without their consent. Likewise, the court order clarifies that I was not the one who sent any intimate images or videos to third parties, which, I reiterate, were recorded in a location other than where I was.
'2. The court order, as far as I am concerned, limits its content to the eventual momentary viewing of some images by a third party, without attributing to me any participation in their recording or dissemination.
'3. The charges brought against me, as expressly stated in the court ruling itself, are strictly provisional. Therefore, the presumption of innocence must continue to prevail. Should charges ultimately be filed and a trial commence, I will continue to defend myself before the Courts and Tribunals, in which I have full confidence, reaffirming my innocence of any criminal conduct. All of this is without prejudice to the utmost respect for the conduct of the judicial proceedings as a whole, including those of the other persons under investigation.
'4. I want to reiterate, once again, my absolute respect for the rights to sexual freedom and privacy of all women.'
🚨 COMUNICADO OFICIAL DE ASENCIO 🚨
Quiero reiterar, una vez más, mi absoluto respeto por los derechos a la libertad sexual y a la intimidad de todas las mujeres.
ESTAMOS CONTIGO @RaulAsencio7 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/S0Oh3djbO5
— REAL MADRID FANS 🤍 (@AdriRM33) May 15, 2025
Asencio has established himself as a first-team regular in his breakthrough season at Madrid.
Fans at various stadiums around Spain have jeered Asencio, with some Barcelona fans chanting 'Asencio, to jail' during the Clasico on Sunday.
Real Madrid's Copa del Rey semi-final win at Real Sociedad in February was briefly paused by the referee after home fans chanted 'Asencio die'.
According to the court ruling, both women show symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, Spanish sports outlet AS reported.
The judge at the Gran Canaria High Court said there was enough evidence to support allegations of violation of privacy, distribution of videos to third parties without the victims' knowledge or consent, solicitation of a minor for pornographic purposes and possession of child pornography.
Article 197 of Spain's Criminal Code states that any individual convicted of recording and sharing an explicit video of a minor will face between three-and-a-half and five years in prison.
This would drop to a two-and-a-half to four-year prison sentence if found guilty of non-consensual recording.
If Asencio is culpable of only sharing the video the sentence would be expected to be less severe.
The authorities confirmed charges were filed by the mother of the 16-year-old girl over the alleged non-consensual filming of her daughter.
The complainant has stated that the sexual activity was consensual, but the recording of it was not.
Following his arrest in 2023, Asencio tried to have his part in the case dismissed in February by appealing to end the investigation into his alleged role, however the judge decided to uphold the decision to move ahead with the inquiry.
Asencio has had his breakthrough campaign at Real this season and spoke about the allegations after being called up to the Spain national team for the first time.
Last month he told RTVE: 'I think everyone is aware of what they are doing. For that reason, I am very calm.
'So, well, live day by day. In the end, it's a matter of deadlines. I have noticed this change of pressure on the pitches.
'It's logical, with the change of category (after Spain call-up). I'm a person who likes and is motivated by feeling that pressure. Since I was a kid, I'm used to feeling that pressure at Real Madrid. It makes me even more motivated.'
He has played 22 games for Carlo Ancelotti's side this season in a disappointing campaign for Los Blancos that looks set to finish without silverware.
In February, Asencio went public on his relationship with Spanish influencer Selenia Suarez, who regularly attends the Bernabeu to watch him and is unrelated to the criminal case.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
Norway dare to dream big again after a quarter century of heartbreak
June 7 (Reuters) - After a quarter of a century of near misses and heartbreak, Norway's rout of Italy in their World Cup qualifier has reignited the country's hope of a return to international football's biggest stage. There was little doubt that Norway were the better team on Friday as they easily dominated Italy in Oslo, pushing on until the scoreboard read 3-0 and taking a big step towards next year's World Cup. For supporters of the Norwegian team, the result has sparked a glimmer of hope in hearts that have been broken many times over the past decades. Norway have not participated in an international football tournament since the European Championship in 2000, which was hosted in Belgium and the Netherlands. There have been many close calls since then, with the margins consistently going against the squad, but now there is a shift in attitude after Norway dominated against the four-times world champions. "I am 100% sure", former Norway, Denmark and Iceland coach Age Hareide told newspaper VG when asked if Norway would go to the World Cup. Norway are in pole position in Group I with nine points out of nine and a goal surplus of 10. Israel, Estonia and Moldova are the other nations in the group. The Football Meets Data statistics platform gives Norway a 77% chance of winning the group and qualifying directly for the tournament hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Key striker Erling Haaland, who put himself on the scoresheet against Italy, agreed with the statistics. "We are too good not to play in championships. I will play both the World Cup and the European Championship. Not to put pressure on myself but I will," he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. While World Cup fever in Norway is reaching a point not seen since 1998, when Norway last participated, manager Stale Solbakken, wise from experience, is lowering expectations. "It is a coach's misfortune that I have to concentrate on the next match, so you can enjoy yourselves and ask those questions. I would have liked to say that it was 100% certain but I can't," he told reporters after Friday's game.
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE How YOU could find yourself wrongly accused of 'pump and dash' and hit with a £60 fine - as alleged petrol thefts hit all-time high
Petrol thefts have soared to an all-time high, figures suggest. MailOnline can reveal that 110,000 charges for alleged 'pump and dash' thefts were issued by two major fuel security firms last year. This marks a 20-fold rise in just six years. Industry bigwigs insist there has been genuine increase in drivers fleeing forecourts without paying, or 'bilking', especially in the wake of the cost of living crisis. Yet drivers say they have been incorrectly stung with threatening letters demanding hefty 'admin fees' on top of their supposedly unpaid petrol or diesel. In an attempt to recoup the costs of stolen fuel for petrol stations, many of which are independently owned, Forecourt Eye and British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS) scan forecourts with numberplate-recognition technology. The two companies work with hundreds of filling sites and are considered among the biggest in the sector. Between the duo, they fired off nearly 113,000 requests to the DVLA for driver details last year. This is up from around 5,500 in 2018, according to data MailOnline obtained from the DVLA through Freedom of Information. Firms only request such data, which costs £2.50 a time and includes the car owner's name and address, if they intend to recover costs for non-payment of fuel. As well as seeking to recuperate the alleged unpaid fuel, companies may slap on their own admin fees. Forecourt Eye bolts on a £60 add-on. Drivers may feel pressured into paying up, even if they already forked out at the time. Some claim to have been threatened with being banned from forecourts up and down the country. There are several ways motorists can wrongly be accused of a 'pump and dash'. For example, if your card was declined and neither you nor the cashier noticed before you drove off, you are likely to be sent a demand. If a criminal has cloned your plates and genuinely steals petrol, you could also be on the hook for any fuel they have stolen. Criminal gangs have also been known to use entirely fake plates to dodge paying for fuel. Drivers also risk being falsely accused of bilking if a cashier selected the wrong pump (or failed to select one at all) when totting up your bill. If this happened, it would mean your fuel was technically never paid for, even if you paid for someone else's. This is the equivalent of a supermarket cashier failing to scan an item at checkout. Chris Mullen, for example, was accused of not paying £7.80 for petrol – even though he was driving a diesel car and filled up £30 worth of fuel. Despite fighting the claim from Forecourt Eye, thought to be caused by staff error, the 63-year-old from Stalham, Norfolk, said the firm 'insisted this was the case'. He was slapped with a £60 admin charge on top of the petrol he allegedly owed. After appealing, Tesco did issue a refund and an apology to him as well as a £10 gift card, which the motorist branded 'something of an insult'. Tesco told the Great Yarmouth Mercury that its processes were 'regularly reviewed' with regular meetings and new staff training to 'prevent errors from occurring'. Social media and forums are littered with similar stories of motorists claiming to have been falsely accused of driving off without paying. MailOnline's analysis can't prove genuine thefts have risen, it only shows that reports have gone up. Police data, however, suggests more than 27,000 alleged thefts occurred last year, in line with levels in 2020. About 95 per cent of cases are canned with no suspect being identified. Cops themselves moan they have 'finite resources' to probe suspected thefts. The Petrol Retailers Association, whose members run two-thirds of forecourts, says bilking robs them of around £100million a year. Petrol stations themselves have resorted to shaming 'pump and dashers' online in a bid to claw back the stolen fuel. One forecourt in Hythe, Kent, last summer shared CCTV footage of a blue car filling up with £120 of petrol before the driver got straight back into his vehicle and casually zoomed off without attempting to pay. Owner Sutha Hari, 49, claimed she wasn't going to bother alerting the police because 'nothing ever comes of it'. While there is no specific offence code for robbing from fuel pumps, it falls under the 'making off without payment' umbrella. It also covers restaurant 'dine and dashers', as well as people who make off without paying taxi drivers at the end of journeys. Thieves can be jailed for up to two years. Experts say petrol theft pushes up prices for law-abiding motorists. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'It would be tempting to suspect that the cost-of-living crisis is pushing normally law-abiding people into committing this type of offence, but that would be an insult to the vast majority of people who continue to obey the law whatever their circumstances. 'Repeat criminals might well be pushing their luck more than ever because they believe other pressures on the police are such that they'll get away with it. 'Drive-offs might be seen as relatively low-level crimes in the grand scheme of things but they are corrosive to society, damaging to businesses and ultimately push up pump prices for law-abiding motorists and riders. 'More is being done to prevent these crimes through adoption of better surveillance systems and pay-at-pump options, but the numbers suggest the problem has been getting worse, with tens of thousands of drive-away fuel thefts each year. 'Those tempted to refuel without paying need to feel there is a real threat of being caught and punished.'
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Aryna Sabalenka v Coco Gauff: French Open 2025 women's singles final
Update: Date: 2025-06-07T12:04:17.000Z Title: How did they get here? Content: Gauff beat home darling Boisson Sabalenka torched the previous queen of these clay courts. Update: Date: 2025-06-07T12:00:06.000Z Title: Tumaini Carayol is our man in Paris, and here's his preview of the women's final. Content: This tournament places Gauff at an interesting intersection. She has already enjoyed her first breakthrough, winning her first major title at the 2023 US Open and then backing it up by triumphing at the WTA Finals in Riyadh last year. At a time when two players – Sabalenka and Swiatek – have distanced themselves from the field by consistently racking up big titles on the biggest stages, the next question for Gauff is whether she is ready and capable of taking another leap forward and consistently competing for every grand slam. Update: Date: 2025-06-07T12:00:06.000Z Title: Preamble Content: The stage is set for the big-hitters in a year where the Roland Garros courts seem to have served such players well. Coco Gauff seeks her second Grand Slam on the scene of her 2022 defeat to Iga Świątek. Aryna Sabalenka seeks her fourth Grand Slam in her first ever final in Paris. A new name will be written on the trophy by the end of the affair. It's the world No 1 taking on America's No 1, and world No 2. In short, the two best players in the game at the moment. We begin at 2pm UK time, 3pm Paris time, 7pm ET, 4pm Belarus time. Join me.
