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Sevilla tour guide on trial for raping several US students
The Andalucía man allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted as many as 40 young women
A Sevilla tour guide, named only as Manuel Gerardo BV, is currently standing trial for three counts of sexual assault against American students during trips to Morocco and Portugal.
The first complainant, a former American student in Salamanca, has provided a harrowing account of her ordeal, alleging that the accused "raped" her and that she has compiled a list of "40" young Americans who claim to have suffered similar assaults by the accused.
The first alleged victim, who was 19 at the time, recounted her experience during a trip to Morocco organised by Gerardo's companies, Discover Excursion and Voodoo Travel. On the last night before returning to Spain, on November 2, 2013, she and two friends were enjoying a beer on the hotel terrace in Tangier when Gerardo approached them. She described him as the "main guide" of the excursion, appearing "very friendly and nice," which initially put her at ease.
According to her account, the guide suggested they order champagne, so the group went to one of the students’ rooms. Gerardo ordered the drinks, and filled their glasses “with his back” to them.
The atmosphere soon turned sexual, with Gerardo asking the girls about their sexual experiences and proposing games like ‘truth or dare’.
As the night progressed, she felt “extremely tired” and noticed Gerardo had taken off his clothes, leaving him “in his underwear, almost naked”. She eventually fell asleep, only to wake up alone in the room with a “terrible heaviness, dazed and confused”. She needed to use the bathroom but had trouble standing upright.
Once in the bathroom, she was shocked to find her two friends half naked in the bathtub with their tour guide.
It was later, as she recalled, when Gerardo and her friends left the bathroom and then she entered, but without locking the door. Then, the accused “abruptly” re-entered the bathroom in his underwear and “forced” her to perform fellatio on him. He then pushed her, causing her to fall and lose consciousness.
Later, she woke up in the extra bed in the room “dressed in pyjamas” without knowing how she had got there. She felt “a very strong pain” in her genitals, “stinging” in her anus and had “bruises on both knees”. The sheets were “covered in faeces”.
“I was completely terrified and mortified by what had happened to me”, she told the court, describing her realisation that she had been “drugged and raped”.
The first complainant also testified that she learned of another young American student who had suffered a similar situation at the hands of Gerardo but managed to “get away”. Over the years, she has compiled a list of “40 girls” who have given statements in the United States about assaults committed by Gerardo “from 2009 to 2019”.
Earlier this month, another American student, aged 20, was discovered in a park in Sevilla. When council workers found the young woman, she was very disorientated, leading police to believe she had been drugged before being sexually assaulted.
Image: Archive
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