Ex-Barcelona player Dani Alves sentenced to four and a half years in prison

Alves was sentenced at a Spanish Court

Alves was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022, and was sentenced in a Catalonian court on Thursday.

The court have also ordered Alves to pay £128,306 to the victim.

A court statement said: "The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent, and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven."

Prosecutors had been seeking a nine-year sentence while the 40-year-old continued to claim that the sexual was consensual.

"If she wanted to leave, she could have left, she was not obligated to be there," Alves told the court, adding that "at no time" had the victim asked to leave.

Alves can also appeal the court decision if he chooses to.

He was arrested in January 2023 and has has been held on remand since.

Speaking in 2023 to Spanish TV channel Antena 3, he said: "I was dancing and having a good time without invading anyone's space.

"I don't know who this lady is... How could I do that to a woman? No."

His case has been one of the most high-profile in Spain given recent law changes which have seen consent become a key factor in all sexual assault cases, as well as an increase on minimum prison sentences for assaults involving violence.

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