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Date Published: 06/10/2023
UK court throws out harassment case against former king of Spain
The judge ruled that the ex-lover of Spain's disgraced Juan Carlos I cannot bring a case against him in London
Former king of Spain Juan Carlos I may be unlucky in love but he’s certainly fortunate when it comes to dodging nasty lawsuits, and on Friday October 6 the London courts threw out the harassment case brought against him by his ex-lover.
Danish businesswoman Corinna Larsen filed a claim for 146 million euros, or 126 million pounds, in compensation for damages, alleging that Juan Carlos caused her "great mental pain" by spying on and threatening her.
Ultimately though, the London court ruled against her.
"My main conclusion is that the High Court of England and Wales lacks jurisdiction to hear this claim. This is because it has not been brought against the defendant in his country of domicile, as is his default right; and the claimant has not convinced me that she has a strong and defensible argument that her claim falls within an exception to that default rule," Judge Collins Rice said.
The judge added that "the key question" in this case was whether the alleged "harmful event" actually took place in the United Kingdom or if "direct harm" occurred at all, something that the courts felt Larsen’s lawyers had not proved.
Responding to the ruling, Larsen said she was "deeply disappointed" and that it was "disheartening to see that victims of harassment often struggle to find justice in our legal system".
She added: "Intimidation and harassment of me and my children continues and is aimed at fully collapsing me.
"Juan Carlos has deployed his full armoury to grind me down and the reach of his power is immense."
When the businesswoman originally filed her suit, she claimed that the emeritus king harassed her when she ended their extra-marital affair, first to try and win her back and then as revenge to destroy her business. Larsen accused the former monarch of hiring Spanish government officials to spy on her and even accused them of breaking into her home on his orders.
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