Rafa Mir jailed for eight and a half years over violent sexual assault
Former Wolves and Nottingham Forest striker Rafa Mir has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison by a Spanish court for violent sexual assault.
The Provincial Court of Justice in Valencia delivered the guilty verdict on Monday following the 28-year-old’s initial arrest in September 2024.
The Spanish forward has also been ordered to pay more than £55,000 in damages to the victim.
Nightclub meeting precedes attacks
The offences occurred in the early hours of 1 September last year after the attacker met the victim at a nightclub.
Prosecutors outlined that the player took the woman back to his residence before throwing her into a swimming pool fully clothed.
The pre-trial indictment stated he then grabbed her tightly and began kissing her face and neck against her will.
A second assault took place after the woman initially fled the property but returned shortly afterwards to retrieve a forgotten handbag.
Victim testimony and co-defendant
He took me into the bathroom and locked the door. He started doing the same thing to me he had done at the swimming pool.
That’s when I started crying and telling him to stop, that I wanted to leave. He didn’t stop.
The former Sevilla player had heavily protested his innocence during a court hearing in May.
Public prosecutors had originally pushed for a longer ten-and-a-half-year prison term.
Fellow footballer Pablo Jara was tried alongside him and received a two-and-a-half-year sentence for a separate assault on a friend of the primary victim.
Struggles in English football
The convicted striker spent three years registered with Premier League side Wolves after joining the Molineux club in January 2018.
He made just four first-team appearances without featuring in the English top flight before embarking on several loan spells.
After playing 13 times for Nottingham Forest during the 2019-20 Championship campaign, he eventually secured a permanent transfer back to Spain in 2021.
