Dilip Kuner
DUTCH football fans who humiliated and goaded four Roma women begging for money in Madrid’s iconic Plaza Mayor have been ordered to pay €1,500 in damages each.
The four men had travelled to the city in 2016 to watch PSV Eindhoven take on Atletico de Madrid.
They were caught on video tossing coins to the ground and goading the women into doing push-ups in exchange for cash.
The incident took place at mid-day when the fans were sitting at a table when the beggars appeared. The men started to throw coins to the ground and shouted Óle every time one of the beggars picked one up.
El Pais reported that Miguel Angel Rendon, teacher from Cadiz who say the scene with his pupils, said: “They were treating them like animals, and the women were shoving and almost hitting one another as they competed for the coins while the Dutchmen laughed,” he said. “They were giving them five-cent coins. And the worst of the worst was when they threw pieces of bread on the ground.”
On Wednesday a Madrid court sentenced the men to three months jail, which will be suspended as it is under two years, and ordered them to pay damages.
Neither the victims nor the Dutchmen appeared in court.
The defendants gave evidence via video link and apologised saying they had drunk too much.
The women are said to have returned to their home country of Romania.
