Former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales at the exit to the National Court in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid. Photo / Getty Images
Former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales at the exit to the National Court in San Fernando de Henares, Madrid. Photo / Getty Images
A lip-reading expert has told a Madrid court the former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales asked Jenni Hermoso for permission before giving her the kiss that led to him losing his job.
“Can I give you a little kiss?” is what David Morillo said he couldread from Rubiales’s lips when shown a clip of the incident on the winner’s podium at the end of the 2023 World Cup women’s final, after Spain had defeated England.
Rubiales is on trial for sexual assault and coercion.
Morillo, who is deaf, has used lip reading and sign language to communicate all his life and was called as a witness by Rubiales’s defence team.
He said he was absolutely sure that Rubiales had asked Hermoso for a “besito” (little kiss), but admitted on cross-examination by the public prosecutor that he had no formal qualifications to demonstrate his expertise in lip reading.
Taking the stand, Rubiales insisted that the kiss he planted on Hermoso’s mouth had been consensual, and therefore not a sexual assault of any kind.
Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales kisses Jenni Hermoso.
Rubiales brushed aside the prosecutor’s point that in previous accounts he had claimed to have used the word “piquito” (peck) instead of “besito” and said he was “totally sure” that Hermoso had given her consent to the kiss.
There is no footage from the other side of the podium showing Hermoso’s face.
Hermoso gave evidence last week that she had not consented to the kiss and had not heard Rubiales ask for permission as he had his hands clasped over her ears.
“The players passed by. Jenni made a gesture, she pulled a face ... because we’ve known each other for a long time. I told her to forget about the penalty [miss].
“She squeezed me really hard, lifted me up, and I asked her: ‘Can I give you a kiss?’ and she said ‘okay’” was how Rubiales described the events on the podium that evening in Sydney’s Stadium Australia.
He said he had placed his hands either side of her head to gain balance as she had lifted him and that it was a normal way of embracing and showing affection.
Rubiales faces prison sentences of one year for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion, if he is found guilty.
Regarding the allegations of attempting to coerce Hermoso into exonerating him publicly after the kiss, Rubiales denied applying any pressure to the player to make statements in his favour.
He specifically denied Hermoso’s claim that he had her pulled out of the dressing room to persuade her to say the kiss had been consensual.
Rubiales said he had only spoken to Hermoso once about the kiss, asking her on the plane home to record a video statement alongside him in order to defuse the scandal.
He said she had declined the offer because she had already been “very clear” about the kiss, in reference, Rubiales claimed, to an initial pitchside radio interview in which Hermoso had said the embrace had been “exuberance” and “nothing more than an anecdote”.
Unlike several of Hermoso’s teammates, who said last week that the player had been tearful and stressed by the pressure she was under, Rubiales said that Hermoso was “happy and jumping for joy” during the journey home to Spain.
Rubiales said he had not apologised to Hermoso as he had not abused her but said he had “made a mistake” in failing to be sufficiently “cold-blooded and behave in a more institutional fashion” during the World Cup celebration.
He was also pictured grabbing his genitals to celebrate Spain’s victory when sitting near Spain’s Queen Letizia in the stadium’s VIP box.
Three other defendants, including the winning team’s coach Jorge Vilda and former RFEF official Albert Luque, also face the charge of coercion.
