Calum Best has been cleared of sexually assaulting a British tourist at Wayne Lineker’s Ibiza beach club after appearing in court last week.
The reality TV icon and son of legendary footballer George Best was facing a prison sentence of up to three years if convicted.
He had been warned he may have to wait up to three months for the verdict following his one-day trial last Tuesday at the Audiencia Provincial Court in the Majorcan capital Palma.
But he learned today he had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
The three trial judges’ decision to acquit him is understood to have been unanimous.
Calum Best (pictured last week in Spain after attending court) has been cleared of sexually assaulting a British tourist at Wayne Lineker’s Ibiza beach club
Calum Best, 42, is seen arriving in court in Spain last week where he stood trial
Calum Best is seen in court last week. The three trial judges’ decision today to acquit him is understood to have been unanimous.
It was not immediately clear today if Spanish state prosecutors would be appealing.
Prosecutor Miguel Tous called for Calum, 42, to be jailed for three years if convicted at the end of his trial.
He also said he wanted the 2006 Celebrity Love Island winner, who has also starred in two series of Celebrity Big Brother, to be served with a restraining order preventing him from going within 100 metres of the woman he was accused of targeting and trying to contact her for five years.
The female British tourist gave evidence via video-link from the UK at Calum’s trial.
She told the court he sexually assaulted her by putting her hands down his shorts and onto his penis after telling her: ‘I’ve got something for you, close your eyes.’
She also claimed a security guard told her when she raised the alarm at O Beach club in the Ibizan party resort of San Antonio: ‘He asked if he was one of Wayne Lineker’s friends and when I said “yes” he laughed, said this happens all the time and told me he wasn’t going to call police.’
Calum was arrested and held in custody for around a day late on April 22, 2022 after leaving the beach club following a toast for friend Wayne Lineker’s 60th birthday.
Best’s defence lawyer Jaime Campaner told the judges at his trial they should acquit his client after Best took the defence stand to insist he had done nothing wrong and had travelled to the island ‘to clear his name.’
The reality TV icon and son of legendary footballer George Best was facing a prison sentence of up to three years if convicted, but found out today that he had been acquitted
Best, who won Celebrity Love Island in 2006 with Bianca Gascoigne and has starred in two series of Celebrity Big Brother, was held in April 2022 over an incident at the O Beach Club (pictured) which was never made public at the time
Calum Best posed with his arm over Wayne Lineker’s shoulder at his 60th birthday party
California-born Calum, the current chairman of Dorking Wanderers FC women’s team, denied his female accuser’s claims he got angry and had a prior altercation with the woman over photos or videos taken of him without his consent.
Recalling the moment police approached him on San Antonio seafront around half an hour after he left the club and he was taken to a nearby station, he said: ‘They told me why they were there and I contested it many many times. I was in absolute shock.’
Asked by Mr Campaner why he thought his accuser had raised the alarm, self-confessed teetotaler Best, whose famous dad died in 2005 aged 59 as a result of alcohol addiction: ‘I have thought about this a lot and the only things I can come up with are two.
‘One was that she had already asked me a couple of times for pictures and I wasn’t maybe reciprocating the same energy.
‘But the main thing is that I know people get very drunk at the O Beach club and I don’t think she would have made the allegations she did if she hadn’t been drinking heavily.’
Best’s defence lawyer said the ten alcoholic drinks plus shots his female accuser had confessed to drinking that day was reason enough to treat her testimony with caution.
He highlighted what he described as ‘contradictions’ in evidence she gave police and what she told the court at Calum’s trial, saying before the judges retired to consider their verdict: ‘A panic attack and tears suddenly appear in January 2024.’
He also flagged up the fact state prosecutors had stated in their pre-trial indictment Best had told his alleged victim ‘Feel This’ as he drew her hand towards his penis but his accuser had not used that expression in her court evidence.
Calum is seen as a young boy being carried by his father George Best in 1984, who scored 181 goals in 474 appearances for Manchester United and was capped 37 times by Northern Ireland
Calum Best is the son of legendary footballer, George Best seen playing for Manchester United against Leicester City at Old Trafford in 1972
The state prosecutor, telling the court a three-year prison sentence was the right punishment for Best if convicted, insisted in his brief closing speech at the end of Calum’s trial: ‘For the prosecution the way the sexual assault happened has been proven here today in a clear and resounding manner.’
He said evidence an acquaintance of Best gave on his behalf, claiming he had spent all night bar 20 or 30 seconds with the reality TV star and ‘seen nothing,’ had been ‘prepared by the defendant.’
Offered a final address to the court, Calum said: ‘Thank you for your time and thank you for listening to my testimony.’
He left the court a free man while judges considered their verdict.