Valencia Court Acquits Rapper El Jincho of Rape Charge

Valencia's provincial court has acquitted the Madrid rapper David Calvo Villa, known as El Jincho, and a second artist, Escola Osiris Reyes, also known as Osiris El Enemy, in a case concerning the rape of a 17-year-old girl with a disability after a concert in Mislata in November 2023. Prosecutors had sought a 13-year prison sentence for El Jincho.

The court held that, after examining all the testimony and other case materials, "reasonable doubt" had arisen about the defendants' guilt. The victim had accused the rapper of drugging her with cocaine at a nightclub and committing sexualized violence at a hotel.

The court noted substantial contradictions between the testimony the victim gave first to the police and then to forensic medical experts. "They differ radically as to the location where the crimes were committed: in the same room or in two different rooms on different floors of the hotel where the singers were staying, and which the victim and her friend visited after the concert," the court's decision states.

The victim's friend, who was in one of the rooms, said at the trial that she "did not witness any rape" and "saw nothing serious." The hotel administrator claimed that the victim had a "normal" conversation with him, asked where she could buy food, and did not ask for help or protection.

The hotel's surveillance-camera footage did not record any external signs of coercion or violence as the minor and the two men entered and exited. The court also took into account messages that the victim sent to one of the defendants several hours after the incident, in which she wrote of a desire to go to Madrid, where the artists were.

The court also explained that it cannot be stated with certainty that the defendants knew of the girl's status as a minor, since during the concert she was in a VIP area that is off-limits to those under 18.

The verdict is not final and can be appealed at the appellate level.