British Man Avoids Prison After Admitting Magaluf Hotel Rape
A judge handed down a suspended sentence and a fine after the accused confessed to assaulting a woman who was unconscious.
A British tourist who admitted to raping a fellow UK holidaymaker at a Magaluf hotel after she passed out has received a suspended sentence. Billy John Chard was facing a potential seven-year prison term but instead received a two-year suspended sentence as part of a plea bargain.
Chard will avoid jail time if he pays his victim £5,000 in compensation and does not re-offend within the next two years. His defense cited alcohol and drug intoxication as mitigating circumstances during the assault, which occurred in July 2022 at the BH Mallorca Resort.
According to pre-trial documents, Chard met the woman at a pool party and invited her to his hotel room. The indictment stated the woman, having consumed a significant amount of cocaine and vodka, lost consciousness and was unable to consent. Prosecutors alleged that Chard took advantage of her unconscious state to penetrate her in the shower and again in the bed.
Chard was reportedly arrested on July 18, 2022. While it was not immediately clear when he was released on bail, he appeared in court in Palma de Mallorca for his scheduled two-day trial.
The BH Mallorca hotel was also the scene of a separate gang-rape incident in August 2023, where seven French nationals and one Swiss national confessed to raping an 18-year-old British tourist. In that case, the defendants accepted prison sentences totaling over 73 years after also striking plea bargain deals. Those individuals admitted to filming the assault, with some posting the footage on Snapchat.