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WOMEN

Man arrested on Madrid metro for ‘upskirting’ over 500 women

Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested a man suspected of secretly recording videos of the underwear of over 500 women, some of them minors, on public transit and supermarkets.

Man arrested on Madrid metro for 'upskirting' over 500 women
Photos: AFP

The man allegedly used a mobile phone concealed inside a backpack which he placed on the ground to take pictures up women's skirts in Madrid without their consent, a practice known as “upskirting”, police said in a statement.   

He then uploaded at least 283 of these videos to a pornographic site where they were viewed over a million times.

Police arrested the 53-year-old Colombian national while he was in the act of recording up the dress of a woman on the Madrid metro using a “strategically placed mobile phone” in his backpack, the statement said.   

He “acted in a compulsive way, daily, recording all the women that he could,” it added.

During one five-day period he recorded 29 different women, police said.   

The man operated in the metro and commuter trains and “in some cases followed some of the women from the metro to supermarkets to continue recording them,” Rafael Fernandez of the cybercrime unit of Spain's national 
police told reporters.   

Officers seized a laptop and three hard drives from his home which had videos with images of hundreds of women whom he secretly recorded.   

A total of 555 women, some of them underage, appear on the 283 videos which he posted online, Fernandez said.

Police have so far managed to identify 29 of the women, who have filed criminal complaints against the man, he added.   

The man has been charged with violating privacy, corruption as well as child abuse and child prostitution since some of his victims were underage, Fernandez said. He has been remanded in custody pending his trial.

Britain specifically outlawed “upskirting” earlier this year following an 18-month campaign by a victim who was secretly photographed at a music festival.

In South Korea women have held regular mass protests against such secretly filmed pornography known as “molka” as anger over the issue grows in the country.

READ ALSO: Madrid just banned 'manspreading' on all public transport 

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FOOTBALL

Putellas becomes second Spanish footballer in history to win Ballon d’Or

Alexia Putellas of Barcelona and Spain won the women's Ballon d'Or prize on Monday, becoming only the second Spanish-born footballer in history to be considered the best in the world, and claiming a win for Spain after a 61-year wait.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.
FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or. 

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich
Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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