UK court rejects sexual harassment case from former Spanish king's ex-lover against monarch

The UK judicial system has rejected a complaint filed by Corinna Larsen, ex-lover of the former Spanish king, against Juan Carlos for alleged sexual assault. 

In the ruling published on Friday, the British judge Rowena Colins Rice accepted the arguments of the former Spanish monarch and agreed that the England and Wales High Court "does not have the qualifications" to bring the case to trial. Late in December last year, a court ruled that it would be possible to try the monarch. 

The ex-lover of the monarch had requested economic compensation for alleged sexual harassment suffered between 2012 and 2020. 

The court, however, rejected investigating all cases from before June 18, 2014, as Joan Carles I was still the King of Spain and therefore, he had "immunity." 

On Friday, the jury decided to reject, taking into consideration the whole case. 

The judge believes the appeals should have been done in the home country of the accused, in this case, Spain. It also considers that Larsen did not give any proof of evidence that the alleged sexual harassment happened in the United Kingdom. 

Corruption scandals 

The former king's ex-lover, Corinna, is well-known in Spain in relation to the monarch's corruption scandals. In March 2020, a Swiss newspaper reported that former king Juan Carlos had allegedly received a $100-million "gift" from his Saudi counterpart, as well as offshore funds in the Bahamas and Lichtenstein. 

The "gift" was given for the awarding of contracts to companies to build a high-speed train line to Mecca.   

This information was published two years after the monarch left Spain for Abu Dhabi, where he still lives.  

Another now-closed investigation relates to how his family had expenses paid by a Mexican businessman while prosecutors were also scrutinizing secret bank accounts in Switzerland. 

The public ministry admitted that the former head of state defrauded the Spanish tax agency but said that the crimes would be inviolable according to the constitution and thus dropped all cases against the former monarch.