"Zeppelin always acted in good faith." This is how forceful the producer of GH Revolution has shown after learning of the sentence for one of the most terrible cases on television in Spain: the case of sexual abuse suffered by Carlota Prado in the reality show.
This Monday the Criminal Court No. 18 of Madrid sentenced José María López to 15 months in prison for sexually abusing Carlota Prado during the broadcast of the reality show GH Revolution in 2017. Along with López, the magistrate also sentenced the producer, Zeppelin, and the insurer of the same, Choup European Group, to pay compensation of 1,000 euros to the victim for the "moral damage" caused by showing him the images of his own abuse. It refers to the moment when those responsible for the production company took Carlota Prado to what is known as the confessional and showed her the images of the sexual abuse of which she had been a victim the night before.
The producer, subsidiary civil liability, will not appeal the sentence, as they have assured in a statement in which it shows "its respect for the sentence handed down in the criminal procedure", although it clarifies several points of it and warns that the 6,000 euros of the compensation that José María López has to pay to Carlota Prado, despite the fact that in the letter he assures that they are borne by the producer, she will not face that payment: "The convicted person must assume the responsibility derived from his acts and face the payment of the economic compensation established in the sentence".
"The production company and its employees acted, throughout the process, with the strongest will to protect it, respecting the privacy of the people involved," the Zeppelin statement said.
The sentence relates that "during the said party, Carlota Prado, who had only had a plate of chips for dinner because there was a shortage of food in the house, drank an indeterminate amount of alcohol, no less than four shots of tequila or similar liquor , which led to alcohol poisoning, which worsened after midnight". Carlota Prado did not receive medical assistance, rather it was her defendant who took her to her bedroom.
At 1:30 a.m. on November 4, José María López took off his pants, helped Carlota Prado to take off her shoes and get into bed and, "guided by a lewd spirit, knowing the state in which Carlota Prado was, He took off her pants and began to make movements of a sexual nature under the duvet, despite the fact that she weakly told him "I can't".
"The facts at trial were brought to the attention of the authorities by the producer itself," they say from Zeppelin, "and the program's management decided to expel the contestant involved in them." "The producer, at the very moment it became aware of the facts, intervened, paralyzing the contestant's conduct on suspicion of its possible illegal nature, despite not having full visibility, since they occurred under a duvet," continues the statement from the producer of GH. However, this has been one of the acts that has cost Zeppelin the most criticism: why didn't he stop before?
According to the sentence, José María López put Carlota Prado to bed at 01:30 a.m. on November 4, 2017 and the person responsible that night called the sentenced person's attention "in a very laconic way" at 01:40 a.m. Those are 10 minutes in which a practically unconscious Carlota Prado is seen. And it is those 10 minutes and those that would come the next morning that have always set the target on Zeppelin.
Once José María López was warned by the producer, he tries to wake up the victim, who wakes up in a daze, vomits and "appears wobbly." For this reason, the judge considers that "it is obvious that Carlota Prado was deprived of all meaning and" in deplorable conditions. to satisfy himself as a sexual toy, without the slightest shadow of consent and consequently of freedom on his part in what happened".
The next morning, the producer expelled José María López from GH and brought Carlota Prado together in the so-called Confessional. According to the sentence, the fact that the young woman saw the images alone, with no other company than the voice-over of the person known as Super, without prior knowledge or notice of what they were going to show her, without "personnel assistance any and without any contractual clause that regulates the proceeding", generated in her "frustration, moral damage and, apparently, subsequent psychological consequences".
Given this, Zeppelin assures that "subsequently and with the purpose of avoiding errors or omissions that could occur in a verbal communication," it was decided to show the victim the video of the events. "Likewise, she was allowed to see it alone because she considered that this would respect the privacy that the moment required. However, at all times there were people from the organization and psychologists prepared to go in to accompany her after the viewing. Zeppelin always acted in good faith ", they conclude.
Eight minutes of confessional in which the reaction of a woman who sees her own sexual abuse without anyone's help is clearly seen, more than the distorted voice of a person. "In these conditions, the viewing of what had happened caused in Carlota Prado, already fully conscious, the next morning, a deep discomfort, surprise and pain and, later, anxiety and stress that ended up producing a psychological disorder in later dates" , affirms the brief of the judge.
After speaking with the psychologist that morning, Carlota Prado decided to leave the house. She spent four days in a hotel arranged by the organization, accompanied by her mother, without a mobile phone and with a team of GH psychologists. When she was discharged, she decided to return home because she couldn't handle the pressure from outside, she "wasn't aware". She went back in and no one said a word. In fact, if it were not for the fact that the media that reported that the program had appeared hours after what happened at the Civil Guard Command to denounce the facts, everything would have ended in an expulsion for "intolerable behavior". . A few days later she was expelled by the audience, she disappeared and already cold and covered by her own she decided to denounce.
After the case, unprecedented in the history of television in Spain, Zeppelin made its Prevention and Action Protocol available to the audiovisual industry in situations of sexual abuse in high-visibility environments. In it, among many points of action, it is stated that "the organization will be located on the same level as the victim, not above or adopting a paternalistic or imposing position, avoiding making decisions without taking the victim into account, "due to its good".
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