Contestant on Spanish Big Brother is forced to ‘watch her own rape’ after a housemate ‘had sex with her as she lay unconscious in bed after drinking’
- Spanish Big Brother showed contestant footage of her alleged assault in 2017
- The show is under fire for the way in which they informed Ms Prado of incident
- Contestant Jose Maria López removed from show over claims he assaulted her
- Footage shows López allegedly having sex with Ms Prado without her consent
Spanish Big Brother has come under fire after it emerged one of the show’s contestants was shown distressing footage of her alleged sexual assault in the diary room.
Carlota Prado, a contestant on the 2017 series of the show, was called to the diary room where she was informed by The Voice of the alleged sexual assault by fellow contender and boyfriend Jose Maria López, with whom she had began a relationship with while in the house.
Ms Prado, who had no idea of the events that had unfolded in bed the night before, was shown a video of Mr López having sex with her while she was passed out in bed.
She found the video footage played out on the diary room screen distressing and asked: ‘Please, Super, stop now, please.’
Carlota Prado, a contestant on the 2017 series of the show, was called to the diary room where she was informed by The Voice that she had been sexually assaulted by co-star Jose Maria López (pictured together)
Ms Prado, who had no idea of the events that had unfolded in bed the night before, was shown a video of Mr López having sex with her while she was passed out in bed
The scene was recorded two years ago by production company Zeppelin and was aired on TV.
Programme bosses called in Civil Guard officers after expelling Mr López from the show.
According to digital newspaper El Confidencial, after being shown the footage, Ms Prado was not allowed to go and tell her fellow contestants what had happened but was instead asked to immediately leave the show temporarily.
Ms Prado decided not to ratify the complaint, and returned to the Big Brother house five days later.
The paper reported that footage of the alleged assault shows Ms Prado, who was inebriated with alcohol which had been supplied to the contestants for a party, rejecting her partner’s advances, telling him: ‘No I can’t.’
Despite this, he got into bed with her and allegedly proceeded to have sex with her for several minutes while she was unconscious.
Programme bosses called in Civil Guard officers after expelling Mr López from the show
The footage of the incident, said to have taken place under a bed sheet, was been handed to police at the time of the incident.
An investigative judge recently ruled that there were grounds to put Mr López on trial for alleged sexual abuse.
In Spanish law, sexual abuse cannot be considered rape unless perceived violence or intimidation occurred.
The incident has faced backlash, with several companies pulling the plug on advertising for the Spanish version of the TV show after El Confidencial revealed the treatment of Ms Prado in the diary room.
Regional Madrid MP for the left-wing Podemos party Beatriz Gimeno called for the show producers to be investigated.
‘The producers should be investigated for a failure in their duty to rescue the victim, which is a criminal offence,’ she said.
‘They were thinking of the show itself. Producers seem to think that if something is on TV, it’s not real. But what happened here is very clearly real.’
Global producer of Big Brother, Endemol Shine Group have expressed regret over the manner in which Ms Prado found out about the incident, saying in a statement: ‘With hindsight we regret that the conversation where Carlota was informed took place in the diary room environment.’
It added she was provided with psychological support following the alleged assault.