- Marta Torrecilla, 33, appeared in video widely shared on social media
- Footage showed her being dragged out of a polling station by police
- Later she claimed that police had broken her fingers and touched her breasts
A woman who claimed to have been the victim of police brutality in the Catalan referendum riots has admitted she “may have” exaggerated her injuries.
Proud Catalan Marta Torrecilla, 33, originally claimed her fingers had been broken “one by one” by the police during the referendum row in Barcelona on Sunday.
But she has since admitted she “may have exaggerated” how bad things were as tensions rose throughout the region in recent days.
Images have flooded social media alleging to show the brute force used by the Spanish Civil Guard officers as they attempted to stop the “illegal referendum” from taking place.
Marta Torrecilla, 33, claimed her fingers had been broken “one by one” by the police during the referendum row in Barcelona on Sunday, but has since admitted she “may have exaggerated”
Torrecilla appeared in video widely shared on social media that showed her being dragged down some stairs by police officers in riot gear
She was later interviewed for local media nursing her left arm, claiming the policeman had broken her fingers “one by one” before sexually assaulting her by touching her breasts
Critics claimed it was odd she was seen cradling her left arm after footage showed her being dragged by her right, but supporters concluded she must have hurt it while falling as a result of the force used by officers
One of the disturbing images which made its way online appeared to show Torrecilla being dragged by her right hand down some stairs as an officer attempts to pull her out of the polling booths as she went to cast her vote.
She was later interviewed for local media nursing her left arm, claiming the policeman had broken her fingers “one by one” before sexually assaulting her by touching her breasts.
She said: “They broke my fingers one by one and touched my tits while they were laughing.”
Critics claimed it was odd she was seen cradling her left arm after footage showed her being dragged by her right, but supporters concluded she must have hurt it while falling as a result of the force used by officers.
She has since appeared on TV in the country where she admitted she was angry at the time of the first interview.
She said: “At that time, I was very hurt from the blow and I was saying that I had broken my fingers because it is the first thing that comes to you when you are in a situation like that.”
She said that although she exaggerated the breaking of bones, everything else she said was true.