Footballer convicted of sexually assaulting La Liga mascot

Spanish footballer Hugo Mallo has been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman dressed as a mascot with the incident taking place before a La Liga game in 2019.

A court in Barcelona has ruled that the 33-year-old, who was playing for Celta Vigo at the time, inappropriately touched the victim’s breasts while she was wearing a parakeet costume for the rival team Espanyol.

Mallo played as a right-back for Celta from 2009-2023 before spending one season with the Brazilian club Internacional. He moved to the Greek Super League club Aris at the start of the season and has made three appearances.

The Spaniard was fined €6,000 (£5,000) by the judge, ordered to pay €1,000 (£843) in damages to the victim and will also have to pay the legal costs of the proceedings.

According to reports from the Spanish media, via Sky Sports, Judge Salvador Roi Tejedor said in his ruling: "Upon reaching the height of the victim, disguised as a parakeet, the accused, with the intention of satisfying his libidinous desire and of undermining the sexual indemnity of the same, put his hands under the costume and touched her breasts, forcing the victim to step back and push the accused away with her right hand."

Mallo has maintained his innocence throughout. He now says he plans to appeal the sentencing and has since taken to Instagram to post a video of the incident and wrote: “I continue to categorically deny the facts attributed to me in the ruling.

“I acknowledged that while turning around after the greetings that my hand could have touched the waist of the parakeet, but I absolutely denied that it touched the parakeet’s breasts.”

The case had been initially dismissed but that decision was then overturned on an appeal. At the time, Mallo once again took to Instagram as he called for ‘respect’, pointing out that neither Celta nor Espanyol had found evidence of wrongdoing.

The former Spanish youth international has also claimed that he did not know the gender of the person in the parakeet costume at the time of the incident and that he greeted Espanyol’s mascots and players normally.