Earlier this month, Magaluf was at the centre of a media storm after video footage emerged of a girl and 24 boys engaged in a big of 'mamading' – a Spanish word for oral sex.The 18-year-old Northern Irish girl, as you might remember, was trashed all over social media, and painted out to be the only one taking part in the sex act by certain factions of the press.
As the video made international news, beyond Mallorca, mainland Spain and Britain, the local mayor promised to investigate the bars where this sort of thing happens, and the bar crawls where this sort of thing is encouraged by promoters. And now, it looks as if something's actually happened. (Beyond the girl herself getting slut-shamedand other Brits who have been caught having sex in public hitting the headlines, too.)
Following a police investigation, Magaluf club Playhouse has been identified as the venue where the sex act took place, and along with Carnage – the promoters of the bar crawl the participants were involved in – has been instructed to pay a joint fine of more than 55,000 euros (£43,500). If they are unable to successfully appeal the council's decision within 15 days, they'll be forced to close for a year.
A council representative told The Belfast Telegraph: 'We've acted only when a full and conclusive police report was in place. We haven't acted on the spur of the moment based on the sole evidence of a video posted on the internet. The town hall won't tolerate activities of the kind featured in the video under any circumstances. We will use all the laws we have available to us to ensure there is no repetition.'
No doubt the move is partly motivated by rescuing the reputation of Magaluf, which has seen tourism plummet.
Carnage's director Paul Smith said that he would be releasing a statement in the next few days. Let's hope it's a lot less irresponsible thanthe tweets his company was sending out in the days after the mamading video went viral.
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.