I have been working with women victims of multiple sexist violence for around 15 years, longer than I have been practicing in my clinic in Madrid's Embajadores neighborhood. I was unaware of the existence of the association Women's Link Worldwide and, judging by the way it reports on its presence and historical relevance, I deduce that the vast majority of the headlines and editorials that are echoing the scandal of Julio Iglesias' alleged sexual assaults were also unaware of the daily activity or the chronological history of this so-called international organization.
I don't know Julio Iglesias, I didn't profess any admiration for him until this moment, but neither did I have any antipathy of any kind.
What I do know about is analyzing testimonies, I know about the expert assessment of gender-based violence, and I am more than trained and experienced in assessing the psychological damages and traces of any biographical episode that is traumatic in interpersonal relationships. And it is very difficult to fake. It is difficult, not to say almost impossible (when the expert assessment is done and taken seriously) to simulate, exaggerate (or even conceal and underestimate, which also happens, in most cases) a truthful, plausible, coherent, consistent, and persistent account of an experience of abuse. I don't accept the idea that lying is easy: because forensic psychology is a science with empirically tested tools at the same level as many others, and because we know that any ordinary human mind is not capable of reliably imagining or projecting something that only its unexperienced imagination has fabricated. Those accusations are no longer valid, not out of faith in human beings, but out of trust (not blind, but evidential) in mechanisms for interrogation, collection, and verification of valid testimonies before a forum as respectable as the judicial one.
That is why I know that the accusations made by the two alleged former employees of Julio Iglesias could not have been easily manipulated or are not simple to have been fabricated ad hoc. That is why I know that the perverse sexual assaults allegedly uttered are not even remotely simple to have been fictionalized, in light of their level of detail, from the different points of view from which they have been narrated, in view of their crudeness and, above all, of the absolute gratuitousness from which their sources originate.
Is a complaint of this nature free of charge?
Absolutely not. The vital effort, media exposure, and the family, social, and personal cost of going through a ordeal of this magnitude often lead many victims of gender-based and sexual violence to question whether it was worth going through that journey. The experiences are numerous and reporting should never be discouraged, but ultimately, the victims' response usually points in the same direction: "None of this process is worth it to me because the only thing that would truly be worth it is not having experienced any of this from the start." Let no one tell me this is pleasant, that false reporting is easy, or that it can be lucrative. It never is.
What awaits the victims now?
A long journey of questioning and doubt in which the aim is to kill both the messenger and the sender; a period in which truth, unfortunately, can take a backseat at the expense of baseless and unfounded accusations. A serious judicial procedure, such as the one no one doubts will take place in this country, in which the victims, for whatever reason, have placed their trust for their complaint, will involve an exhaustive expert examination that analyzes, firstly, the objective credibility of the complainants' testimonies and, secondly, the questionable credibility, potential secondary gains, possible personal and contextual inconsistencies of their accounts, as well as any peripheral evidence that may support or contradict the testimony. In between, their personality profiles, their histrionic tendencies (or lack thereof), and even the complete integrity of their biography will be reviewed, evaluated, and, why not say it, judged. Is any of this worth it? Not for all the gold in the world.
