A 38-year-old Irish tourist has avoided an 18-month prison sentence after striking a last-minute plea bargain over a sexual assault in a Magaluf hotel steam bath.
Raphaella Richer Martins Burns accepted a financial penalty after admitting to touching the genitals of an 18-year-old Swedish holidaymaker without his consent.
She entered her guilty plea via video link to the Audiencia Provincial Court in the Mallorca capital Palma on Wednesday.
The incident occurred around 6pm on June 3 last year at the four-star Hotel Martinique in the popular holiday resort.
A three-page prosecution indictment outlined how Burns sat beside the Swedish teenager inside the hotel’s Turkish steam bath after engaging in small talk in the adjoining sauna.
The court heard she acted with a ‘lustful spirit’ and took advantage of the fact that the pair were entirely alone.
She fondled the teenager’s private parts against his will until he protested by saying ‘No, no, no’ and fled the room.
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The visibly upset victim immediately alerted hotel staff, who called the police to the scene.
Burns was with her husband at the hotel when officers from the Guardia Civil arrived and took her away.
She spent a night in a local police cell before an investigating magistrate released her on bail, allowing her to travel back to her home in a small village in eastern County Cork pending the criminal probe.
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Public prosecutors initially demanded a one-and-a-half-year jail term and a two-year ban from working with minors.
Burns had originally maintained through her defence lawyer Joan Arbos that the encounter was a ‘simple misunderstanding’.
Sources close to the case revealed she claimed she believed the Swedish tourist was interested in her because he followed her from the sauna into the steam bath.
However, she executed a total U-turn just as the trial was due to commence with testimonies from the victim and two arresting police officers.
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Judges at the Palma court ratified the agreement, ordering Burns to pay a fine of €2,700 and an additional €500 in compensation to her victim.
Under Spanish law, prison sentences of two years or less are normally suspended for first-time offenders.
The agreement ensured the matter was resolved immediately without the Swedish teenager being required to testify via video link from his home country.
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