Rafa Mir Remains Silent After Being Questioned as a Defendant in the Alleged Rape of a Young Woman

The case of sexual assault against footballer Rafa Mir, striker for Elche C.F., or the match he plays against justice for the alleged rape of a young woman at his villa in Bétera on September 1, 2024, as the defense lawyer once metaphorically described, is still in its early stages. Thus, to avoid scoring an own goal - continuing with the football analogy - Rafa Mir has chosen to exercise his right to remain silent this Monday morning after his telematic appearance before the judge in Llíria who is handling the case, now as a defendant, to avoid potential contradictions with his initial testimony.

Both Rafa Mir and the other detainee, Pablo Jara, accused of sexually assaulting two young women at the footballer's residence, which at the time of the events was on loan to the Valencia team by Sevilla F.C., were supposed to testify today at the eighth plaza of the Civil and Instruction Section of the Llíria Court of Instance, now as defendants, as reported by LAS PROVINCIAS. However, both, who requested to testify via videoconference from their respective lawyers' offices, preferred to remain silent on the advice of their defenses, as is often customary, to avoid variations in their accounts that could be used against them in court.

At the time, after being arrested by the Civil Guard and brought before the court, the footballer claimed that the sexual relations with the young woman, whom he had met that night at a nightclub in Valencia, were consensual. His testimony was supported by the Bétera Local Police officers who went to the residence in the Torre En Conill urbanization in the early hours of September 1, 2024, but the security company guards who were also present dismantled the police's account by corroborating that the victim, who reported two episodes of sexual assault with carnal access, one in the pool and another in the bathroom, did indeed say in those first moments that the footballer had inserted his fingers without her consent.

After analyzing the various testimonies and collected evidence, the judge in Llíria handling the case has charged Rafa Mir with a crime of sexual assault involving the insertion of a body part vaginally, "using violence."

The judge considers that "from the actions carried out, there are indications and not mere suspicions" of two episodes of sexual assault, using violence, by Rafa Mir with the 21-year-old complainant, the first in the pool and subsequently a second in the bathroom. In both cases with carnal access by having inserted his fingers without her consent, and despite the victim "telling him to stop, to let her go and pushing him away," as reflected in the indictment against the footballer.

Similarly, as this newspaper exclusively reported, the judge has also imposed a bail of 12,500 euros on Rafa Mir to cover potential civil liabilities and a bail of 5,000 euros on the second defendant, for touching another 25-year-old young woman.

The events occurred on the night of August 31 to September 1, 2024, when the two young women were at a well-known nightclub in Valencia where they met footballer Rafa Mir, the also defendant Pablo Jara, and a third friend who did not participate in any way in the alleged assaults.

Once the nightclub closed its doors, the five young people, by mutual agreement, went to the footballer's residence, a villa in the Torre en Conill urbanization of Bétera, where Rafa Mir had consensual sexual relations with one of the girls.

After the sexual encounter with her, he went to the pool area where the second young woman, aged 21, and his two friends were. According to the indictment, the footballer picked up the girl in his arms and they jumped into the pool together. Inside the water, he held her tightly and began kissing her on the face, grabbing her to force her to kiss him, while touching her breasts and buttocks. All this despite the young woman's opposition, who at all times told him to stop. Even in that first assault, finger insertion occurred, according to the victim's statements.

After this first assault, the victim wanted to leave the place, even leaving the villa, but remembering she had left her belongings inside, she returned to collect them. It was at that moment that the footballer allegedly grabbed her arm tightly, causing injuries, and took her inside the bathroom of the house, where he again began kissing her on the face, touching her breasts, and inserted his fingers into her vagina while the victim cried and told him to stop.

After leaving the bathroom, the young woman went to her friend to leave immediately. The other victim, and also a witness, saw her in "a strong state of nervousness," and from her phone called her friend's father.

Regarding the second complainant, the indictment states that when she left the room after having consensual sex with the striker on loan from Sevilla to Valencia at that time, she went to the pool area, where after eating cake, she undressed, staying in a thong, and jumped into the water, where Pablo Jara was, who after talking to her allegedly touched her, both her breasts and vagina over her clothes on three occasions. At all times and "expressly" the complainant pushed him away and told him she wanted nothing with him: "Get off," "leave me alone."

After leaving the pool, the young woman covered herself with a towel and entered the kitchen of the house, from where she heard noises in the bathroom where Rafa Mir and her friend were, who came out of the bathroom visibly nervous.

As the young woman allegedly raped by Mir "was crying and making a lot of noise," Pablo Jara told them to leave "because they were making a lot of fuss and were being childish," while pushing the one he had touched in the pool, who fell to the ground and sustained injuries to her right elbow. Upon getting up from the ground, the co-defendant took her towel and punched her, causing injuries to her lip, and threw them out of the house, leaving one of them semi-naked on the street.

As a result of these events, the 25-year-old young woman suffered injuries, specifically a contusion on the lip and erosion on the right elbow. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old girl assaulted by the footballer suffered injuries consisting of a contusion on the right arm, as well as "a psychological trauma and an adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood," according to the facts recorded in the judicial order, based on the statements of those involved, the complainants and other witnesses, the photographic report of the house where the events occurred, and the forensic medical reports, as well as the data extraction report from the footballer's phone and SIM card.