RAF soldier, 27, is arrested for “raping a British tourist in the Magaluf Hotel during a rugby tournament in Mallorca”.

• The alleged sexual assault is said to have occurred around 5 a.m. on Monday

A serving RAF soldier has been arrested in Mallorca after a British holidaymaker accused him of raping her at a four-star hotel in Magaluf.

The UK-based but foreign-born suspect was dragged to court in handcuffs in the island’s capital Palma this afternoon after being held in a police cell overnight.

The unnamed 27-year-old, who is believed to have traveled to the island to take part in a rugby tournament with friends, was arrested at the airport yesterday shortly before his flight back to the UK.

His accuser told police he forced himself on her at a Magaluf hotel where she was staying after meeting her at a bar at the party resort several hours earlier and spending time with her on the beach.

The alleged sexual assault is said to have occurred around 5am on Monday on a terrace at the hotel, which we are not naming to protect the identity of the 21-year-old woman who reported it.

She told investigators her attacker tore her dress and forced her to perform a sex act on him before raping her.

It is understood Guardia Civil officers only discovered the suspect’s identity hours after she lodged a formal complaint.

They headed to Palma airport to intercept him after discovering that he had left the hotel where he was staying, which was different from the hotel where the alleged sexual assault took place.

He was pictured entering court late in the afternoon in handcuffs, wearing the same clothes he wore when he was arrested, for a hearing that will be held behind closed doors to decide whether he should be remanded in custody or pending an ongoing hearing should be released pending criminal investigation.

The whereabouts of his accuser were not immediately clear, although she was expected to appear before the same judge to confirm her earlier police statement.

She was examined as part of a normal forensic examination.

The Civil Guard, which carried out the arrest and held the detained man in police cells overnight, has made no official comment.

But a well-informed source on the island described him as a serving member of the British armed forces who was born abroad but lived in Britain and worked for the RAF.

Another said: “He was on holiday in Mallorca with a group of rugby players who had come to the island to take part in an event.”

“He was arrested shortly before boarding his flight back to the UK.”

A British 18-year-old was allegedly raped multiple times at a hotel in Magaluf in the early hours of August 14 last year.

Five French nationals and a Swiss national were arrested and held in custody pending judicial investigations. Two other suspects were subsequently held in France on European arrest warrants. The criminal investigation is still ongoing.

A British tourist was sentenced to four years in prison by a Palma court earlier this year after confessing to raping his son’s girlfriend in a hotel room in Magaluf.

Spanish prosecutors said before David McPaul Wigging’s trial on February 5 that they wanted to sentence him to nine years in prison if convicted of the May 9, 2023 sex attack.

The 43-year-old also reached a settlement with his lawyer before the entire trial.

At a subsequent short public hearing, it was confirmed that he would receive a four-year prison sentence, although he would only serve two years behind bars.

A mitigating factor taken into account was that he was heavily drunk when he attacked his victim, who is also from the UK and is believed to be in his mid-twenties.

He will be deported from Spain on May 8 next year once he has served half of his sentence. When setting the two-year period, the time that he has already spent behind bars as a pre-trial prisoner is taken into account.

Wigging’s defense attorney Fernando Mateas said at the time that the deal he negotiated for his client meant he would be a free man after May 8, 2025.