Judge dismisses sexual assault claim over consensual spanking

Parking Lot Spankings: Judge Dismisses Sensual Assault Claim

Can a boss summon an employee to a parking lot in Alcalá de Henares, bend her over his knees, and count out loud while spanking her without it being a crime? According to a June 9 ruling by Court No. 3 of Alcalá de Henares, the answer is no; there was no sensual assault. The complainant has appealed. The evidence supporting this dismissal is, at best, uncomfortable: messages exchanged three months prior describe a relaxed atmosphere where she herself joked about the scene.

On February 7, the employee reported her superior, an executive at a Barcelona-based company, for incidents that occurred in the parking lot on Paseo de los Aguadores. She claimed he said "let's go to the back," asked why, and replied that he would give her some spankings. He then placed a hand on her back, bent her over, and began counting: "One, two..." She got out of the car, called the police, and filed a sensual assault report.

What Previous WhatsApp Messages Reveal

Judge Francisco Javier García Ferrández based the dismissal on three pieces of evidence: exchanged messages and audio files, and security camera footage from the parking lot. In the messages, the executive had mentioned weeks earlier his intention to give her "slaps" if she didn't complete her tasks. On January 24, he wrote that he would add "merciless slaps (and we're up to 25)" and wanted to have tapas and take a long drive. She responded with a smiling emoji and "HAHAHAHAH."

The next day, he insisted: "From the 31st, no more slaps. It will be spankings. Spankings." She replied: "Gooood morning. Yesss, I'll come close! That sounds too much like slavery, hahaha." The day before the meeting, she sent him an audio message: "See you tomorrow, ok? I hope the spankings aren't with leather belts (laughs)." He responded that he would wear a leather belt and that she was coming to "listen, train, and obey (including slavery)." She answered with a military salute emoji and "Perfect."

What the Parking Lot Camera Shows

The camera footage provided by the executive's defense, handled by Beatriz Uriarte of the Ospina Abogados firm, shows how the employee gets out of her car and enters the passenger seat of her boss's vehicle without any gesture indicating pressure or intimidation, according to the ruling. Three minutes later, she exits and moves to the back seat, trinc by him. They stay there for a minute and a half. This is when the spanking episode occurs. Afterwards, she gets out, speaks briefly with her boss, and leaves.

In her police report, the employee described the incident as "surreal" because she never thought the talk about spankings was serious. She stated that afterwards she told her boss: "You know what you just did is workplace harassment and I can report you." He suggested they go eat together and continue with the training.

The Core Issue: Evidence That Saves the Boss

There is a pattern repeated in these cases, visible in the material: the defense won not due to the strength of the executive's account, but because of the documentary trail he left behind. The previous messages, showing the employee playing along, and the parking lot recording, where no coercion is apparent, construct an alternative narrative that the judge considers incompatible with sensual assault. Without this material, the scenario would have been very different.

An uncomfortable conclusion emerges from the analysis: the executive acted with notable recklessness by taking an employee to a parking lot for a scene he had announced in writing. The difference between dismissal and conviction was not the conduct, but the documentation. The case remains open during the appeal phase.

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So we have a boss who schedules a spanking session via WhatsApp with his employee, meets her in a parking lot, bends her over his knees, and counts the hits out loud. And a judge who dismisses the case because the messages and video contradict the complainant's story. If this is the state of labor relations in Spain in 2025, one better not ask how performance reviews are going.