Testimony of the woman accusing Vélez players of sexual assault: 'Soul destroyed'

The woman accusing Braian Cufré, Abiel Osorio, Sebastián Sosa, and José Ignacio Florentín, players of Vélez Sarsfield, of sexual assault testified in court, and the Argentine press now reveals the account of the 24-year-old sports journalist.

The incident occurred in early March, in Tucumán, and the footballers from the Argentine first division team have been detained since March 18th, it's worth noting. Their respective contracts with the club are currently suspended.

The young woman explained that she agreed to go to the hotel with the players, but what happened afterward was not consensual. And she says her life has been a hell ever since.

I'll start by saying that this will be my prison because my life has been hell and a prison for three weeks, everything seems crazy. I'm scared. It doesn't seem fair to me that they get to spend the rest of the trial in a house with a swimming pool, with a soccer goal, living well while my life has been hell for three weeks. I can't go anywhere alone. My face is everywhere. They have my name, everything. I can't go out alone, not even to buy a book at the mall because people stare at me. The comments that have reached me have been abhorrent. They didn't just take away my dignity and sexuality, they took away my career, my dreams, my happiness, my smile, and above all, my will to live," she stated.

I did not voluntarily go to a hotel with four people and at no point did I say 'crazy party for everyone.' Those were never my words. They wanted to convey a different message. Whenever I arrange something with a football player, whether it's to pass me tactics, to tell me team news, to have a drink, to go out, for whatever, it's something private. I don't want this to be confused with my sporting life, as a journalist, private life, or whatever. I consented to go to the hotel, but everything that happened afterward was not consensual. I agreed to go spontaneously, but I did not accept everything that came after. I was not conscious, not lucid at 100% at any moment. At times, my mind was responsive and my body wasn't. No victim talks about the moment because it's something that takes some time to process. I went to work in the following days. Not because I was okay or because nothing had happened, it was a defense mechanism. To say 'well, I'll try to move on.' Of course, I couldn't move on, and my coworkers saw that I wasn't okay and that something was wrong. I went to the gynecologist with a total anguish attack, crying and begging to be seen. For moments, my mind functioned, my body didn't," she continued.

"It seems unfair to me that these four people continue to go unpunished. Living in a luxurious house while my life is a prison and hell. Things are not as they say, their image is not damaged. I also suffered a media trial because my face appeared everywhere, my name circulated without things being confirmed. I have nothing left in life, no privacy, no identity, no intimacy, absolutely nothing. I only have my life, it's what motivates me to fight for myself and for all the others who come after. I blame myself every day for not leaving there, absolutely every day. No one knows what I lived and felt in that moment, so I will not allow them to question what I could have done in a moment of lucidity. I assure you that my soul is destroyed. I have lost a lot of weight, the anguish is so much that I can't eat, I can't even go to the gym because people look at me, I can't breathe sometimes. The anguish is so great that my chest hurts and the air doesn't come out. And I'm not even talking about everything that has been said on social media, horrible things," she lamented.

In the security cameras, they [Braian Cufré and José Florentin] hug and laugh, as if it were a victory to do what they did. What? Grabbing me in a state of total vulnerability and against my will, like a trophy? I would like to understand what they were feeling at that moment. They say I asked for money to go home? I didn't ask anyone for money, never in my life. It's a complete lie. It's one of two things: either they paid me for what they did to me or they wanted to silence me. For sure," the woman said in court.