La Manada convicted of sexual abuse, not rape, over Sanfermines attack

On 26 April 2018, the Audiencia Provincial de Navarra (a regional court) convicted five men of continued sexual abuse over an attack on an 18-year-old woman in Pamplona. It happened on 7 July 2016, during the Sanfermines (San Fermín bull-running festival). The men, who called themselves "La Manada" (the Wolf Pack) in a WhatsApp group, were each sentenced to nine years in prison.

The court ruled that the act was not rape because it found no violence or intimidation, which Spanish law then required for that charge. One of the three judges dissented and argued for acquittal. The ruling suggested the woman's apparent passivity under pressure did not amount to the force the law demanded.

The verdict triggered large protests across Spain under the slogan "Yo sí te creo" (I do believe you). It fuelled a national debate about consent and the legal definition of rape. In June 2019 the Supreme Court reclassified the crime as rape and raised the sentences to 15 years. A 2022 law later made consent central to sexual offences.