THIS is the moment the British holidaymakers suspected of gang-raping a UK tourist at a hotel in Magaluf cover their faces with their T-shirts as they are led handcuffed into court.
The men looked down and covered up as soon as they spotted waiting photographers outside the court building in the Majorcan capital Palma.
They were escorted by armed cops into the courtroom this morning following a night in police cells after their arrests yesterday.
A judge was due to question them before deciding whether to remand them in custody or release them on bail pending an ongoing probe.
The British woman who accused them of drugging and sexually attacking her was also expected to be called to testify as part of the investigation.
If they are remanded in prison, the suspects are likely to end up in the same jail where five Frenchmen and a Swiss national are being held on suspicion of gang-raping a British 18-year-old in a separate incident just under a fortnight ago.
Police in Majorca confirmed yesterday afternoon the trio, thought to be in their early twenties like their female accuser, had been held as they tried to board a flight to Manchester.
The results of tests for suspicious substances conducted on the British woman have not yet been revealed.
And the hotel where the latest incident occurred has not yet been named.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard, confirming the arrests at a hotel in the municipality of Calvia, which Magaluf is part of, said yesterday: “The Civil Guard has arrested three young men as the suspected authors of a crime of sexual aggression on a woman at a hotel in Calvia.
“This morning a central response unit received an alert about a possible sexual aggression from a hotel in the municipality.
“A police patrol went to the hotel and spoke to a young tourist who told them she had been raped in the early hours of this morning by men she had met the night before.
“She also said she had suffered chemical submission, given that she felt completely unwell possibly because of the consumption of some type of drug.
“She said she didn’t know the identity of the alleged aggressors, just the nickname one of them used on a social network.”
Explaining she had been taken to hospital so further tests could take place, the spokesman added: “Officers identified the alleged aggressors who had just abandoned the hotel with the intention of taking a flight back to their home country.
“They were arrested at Palma Airport minutes before they boarded a flight to Manchester.”
It comes after the arrest of the eight suspects over the alleged gang-rape of an 18-year-old British teen t the BH Mallorca Resort in Magaluf in the early hours of August 14.
Six are in custody in Majorca and two are expected to be extradited shortly from France.
Seven of the suspects, aged 18 to 26, are French and the other man is a Swiss national.
The BH Mallorca Resort said it was cooperating fully with the authorities and offered its support to the unnamed holidaymaker.
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
