Netflix will premiere a new true crime docuseries on March 27 titled The Predator of Sevilla, which reconstructs one of the most controversial cases involving international students in Spain.
The series tells the story of a tour guide who gained the trust of young foreign women while allegedly committing sexual assaults that remained hidden for years.
Manuel Blanco – known among students as ‘Manu White’ – presented himself as a friendly guide who organised low-cost trips to cities across Spain.
His company offered weekend excursions mainly aimed at foreign students temporarily living in the country to learn Spanish.
However, the case began to unravel when several women started connecting their experiences of abuse, which at first appeared unrelated.
The story behind the docuseries
The series, produced by Atresmedia in collaboration with Newtral – the production company founded by journalist Ana Pastor – tells the story through victim testimonies, previously unseen material and a journalistic investigation carried out over several years.
The narrative centres on Gabrielle Vega, a young American woman who travelled to Spain at the age of 19 to improve her Spanish before starting university.
According to the synopsis, during a trip organised by the company Discover Excursions, the group’s guide invited her out for drinks and later sexually assaulted her.
For years, Vega kept the incident secret. But when she eventually spoke about it publicly on a television programme, she discovered that dozens of American women who did not know each other had reported similar experiences.
All of them pointed to the same person: Manu White, who reportedly referred to himself as ‘the prince of Sevilla’.
Victim testimonies and years of investigation
Directed by Alejandro Olvera, the docuseries reconstructs how this network of travel experiences for international students allegedly became the setting for a series of assaults that remained hidden for years.
The production includes testimony from several victims, documentary material and the results of a long-running journalistic investigation that explains how separate complaints eventually connected and exposed the case.
Blanco’s trial and conviction
In February 2025, Spain’s National Court sentenced Manuel Blanco Vela to nine years in prison for sexual assaults committed against three American students while he was running the travel company Discover Excursions.
According to the ruling, the victims were studying at universities in Salamanca and Valencia and had joined trips organised by the company to Morocco and Portugal in 2013 and 2017.
The court imposed a six-year prison sentence for one count of sexual assault – reduced slightly due to delays in the judicial process – as well as two additional sentences of one year and six months for two further sexual assault offences.
Blanco was also banned from working as a tour guide for seven and a half years and ordered to pay compensation to the victims.
The first victim in the Morocco case was awarded €40,000, while the two victims in the Portugal case were each awarded €1,500.
In addition, the court ordered seven and a half years of supervised release after his prison term, along with restraining orders preventing him from approaching or contacting the victims.
The ruling concluded that Blanco followed an ‘identical pattern’ in the assaults. According to the judges, he would approach young women in a friendly manner, invite them for drinks and suggest playing ‘truth or dare’ before attempting to carry out sexual acts against their will.
The court also considered the testimony of the main victim credible, noting that her account remained consistent over time and was supported by other victims and police investigators who later uncovered similar allegations.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
