A Scots woman has allegedly been sexually assaulted at a tattoo parlour in Ibiza.
Spanish police have made an arrest after the 21-year-old reported that the crime had happened while she was on holiday near the party resort of San Antonio on the island. The 47-year-old man arrested before he was remanded in prison after appearing before a judge in a closed court hearing has been described as an Argentinian-born Spaniard.
No-one was answering the phone at the tattoo parlour this morning where the alleged sexual assault occurred, a popular place with tourists. It was thought the woman who sparked the police probe that led to the suspect’s arrest had phoned police in Scotland while she was still on holiday in Ibiza.
But a police source said: “She alerted police in Scotland when she returned home and they passed the information on to police in Spain to investigate.”
Police released photos of uniformed officers putting the suspect into a police car yesterday after his arrest - but did not reveal details of his nationality in a statement about the detention.
A spokesman for the force said: “The Civil Guard through its Unit of Investigation of Sex Crimes in Ibiza, has arrested a man aged 47 on suspicion of a crime of sexual assault.
“The arrest took place on August 11. The victim, a British woman who was on holiday in Ibiza, reported the incident to police in Scotland where she lives normally who passed her information on to the Civil Guard.
“Investigators discovered the arrested man had previous for incidents of a similar nature and allegedly committed the sexual crimes in a tattoo parlour in San Josep de Sa Talaia, where the alleged victims hired his services.
“He allegedly molested the women by touching them without their permission while he was doing their tattoo. Ibiza Court of Instruction Number One has remanded him in prison.”
Although the tattoo parlour is in the municipality of San Josep de Sa Talaia, or San Jose in Castilian Spanish, it is in a beach area very near to the party resort of San Antonio which is popular with young British tourists. It is currently coming up online as “temporarily closed.”
The man at the centre of the ongoing criminal probe has not yet been charged with any crime, as formal charges are not normally laid in Spain until shortly before trial.
But he is under formal investigation and given his past police record could be held on remand in jail for some reason before magistrates agree to any request by a defence lawyer to allow him bail while the probe continues.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We received a report of a sexual assault having taken place in Ibiza.
“We continue to liaise with the Spanish authorities.”
