A British mother is sounding the alarm after allegedly suffering a ‘horrendous’ attack at the hands of a nightclub bouncer in Benidorm.
Charlotte Benson, 31, from Shropshire, told the Spanish Eye this week that she was shoved to the ground before being repeatedly kicked in the ribs during a night out at The Red Lion.
The ‘unprovoked’ attack is alleged to have occurred on Friday, March 28. The Spanish Eye contacted The Red Lion for comment.
Charlotte explained how herself and a group of friends were planning a trip to Liverpool but decided to fly out to Benidorm on a whim because it worked out cheaper.
After enjoying a ‘lovely day’ on Friday they headed to the resort’s party strip and ended up in The Red Lion.
Charlotte, head of operations at a tech company in the UK, claims that when she was coming back from the bathroom she ‘suddenly felt a huge force shove her onto the floor.’
She said: ‘I must have flown half way across the dance floor, I hit the front of my head as I fell and then I just felt a boot in the ribs. I curled up into the foetal position and he kept hitting my ribs and stomach.’
Charlotte, who is 5ft2 and weighs eight stone, said she finally managed to get up and was shocked to turn around to see a ‘six-foot tall meathead’ staring at her.
Realising it was one of the bouncers she shouted ‘what have I done?’, to which he allegedly replied by ‘screaming’ at her to ‘get the f*** out!’, before allegedly shoving her again.
Charlotte and her friends called an ambulance and the police to their hotel to report the crime.
Photos shared with the Spanish Eye show visible bruising on her body and a black eye.
Charlotte said: ‘It was horrific, the paramedics rolled their eyes and wouldn’t admit me so I had to take myself to a private hospital for scans, where they found internal bruising.’
She added: ‘The police did not want to know and said there was nothing they could do and that I should report it to the English speaking station the next day.’
However, when she arrived on Saturday, she discovered that they are closed on the weekends, a fact she branded ‘ridiculous’ given that most crimes are likely to happen then.
While Charlotte was able to speak to police at the airport before her flight, she claims ‘there was just no compassion’.
‘They just see you as another pissed up Brit abroad and acted like I deserved it,’ she said, ‘We are all married mums in our 30s with good jobs, we were not there to cause trouble.
‘I know justice won’t be done, I’ve accepted that, I just want people to know how dangerous it is before going out there.’
The Spanish Eye has contacted Policia Nacional for comment.
The Red Lion blocked this newspaper’s reporter but said in a statement via Facebook: ‘Well thanks for all the promoting over Facebook these last days… there are fights everywhere not just Red Lion, there are drunks everywhere not just in Red Lion.
‘Every busy club has their own problems, most of them can be solved without any harm, sometimes because of the circumstances or the people it does get rough just like in any other nightclub of the world.
‘We have tried about 10 different bouncers they’re all different from last year (so it really can’t always be the bouncers), people get very drunk. Measures in Benidorm are like nowhere else and not here nor anywhere does security hit for no reason, there’s always two sides to every story.’
It added: ‘Every day we get handed bags, phones, hotel keys/cards etc and most of them are returned to their owners, obviously not all phones are lost here, there are another 50clubs/pubs/bars so not everyone is lucky or not all of them always get handed to the staff.
‘With this I just want to say don’t listen to comments or people and just enjoy your holidays in Benidorm and try places for yourselves, there’s something for everyone in Benidorm. If you don’t like a place simple just try another.’
Charlotte said in response: ‘I think it’s disgusting that they have made it almost into a joke, and they have tried to justify using violence on people that are drunk.
‘I wasn’t drunk, and if they’d hand over the CCTV that would confirm it was unprovoked.’
