UK’s rape warnings silenced by Ibiza’s tourist industry

DRAMATIC warnings about sexual predators in Ibiza have been silenced after complaints from the island’s hoteliers.

The British Consulate in Spain warned tourists in the Balearics about the risk of sexual attacks, hitting headlines in the UK and seeing thousands of leaflets distributed around the island.

The campaign to stop rape and sexual assaults abroad comes amid claims that UK holidaymakers are being targeted by sexual predators on the Spanish islands.

Posters and leaflets distributed around the island warned vulnerable holidaymakers: ‘Don’t walk home alone or with someone you don’t trust, it could cost you your life’.

Another read: ‘Keep an eye on your drink: It only takes a second for your night out to turn into a nightmare’.

Will Middleton, the British consular director for Spain, said that over the last two years 110 Brits have reported sexual assaults in Spain and 43% of these were in the Balearics.

But he added that with more than two million Brits visiting Ibiza every summer, the real numbers are likely to be far higher.

But the posters have now been torn down and the leaflets withdrawn, after uproar from hoteliers.

Ibiza’s councillor for tourism, Carmen Ferrer, called for an immediate retraction ‘because of the deep alarm this is creating among the hoteliers and residents’.

The calls for the campaign to be halted over fears for the holiday hotspots reputation are just one of many attempts to bury sexual assault claims.

In an exclusive Olive Press investigation, it was revealed that town halls and police across Spain have no official record of reported sexual assaults.

Since the discovery the Olive Press has launched a campaign – ‘Smash the spiking’ – to bring the problem into the public eye. The aims are simple: more statistics, better policing, clearer advice.