Dani Alves, the ex-Barcelona and Brazil football player, has been handed a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence by Catalonia's highest court. This verdict comes after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

During the three-day trial, the Brazilian consistently asserted his innocence, despite changing his testimony multiple times. Initially denying knowledge of his accuser, the 40-year-old later claimed that nothing untoward had occurred. Eventually, he altered his account once more, asserting that the encounter involved consensual sex, stating, "We were both enjoying ourselves," according to reports.

When questioned about whether he had coerced the victim into having sexual relations with him, Alves informed the court, "I am not that type of man." The woman, in her statement to prosecutors, claimed that she voluntarily entered a VIP bathroom with Alves but was subsequently prevented from leaving. She further alleged that he slapped her and sexually assaulted her.

The court mandated the 40-year-old to pay €9,000 (£7,700) for causing physical harm to the victim. Additionally, his offer of €150,000 in compensation was taken into account by the court as a mitigating factor during sentencing. He will be under legal supervision for an additional five years, and a restraining order, prohibiting contact with the victim, has been imposed for nine years and six months.

This case, one of the most prominent in Spain since the passage of a 2022 law making consent a crucial factor in sexual cases and raising the minimum prison sentence for assaults involving violence, has garnered substantial attention. The focus extends beyond Alves' celebrity status to the broader issue of gender violence, which has become a prevalent topic in Spain's public discourse.