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Spain's Supreme Court rules that kissing a woman's hand without consent is sexual assault
The ruling stems from a 2023 incident at a Madrid bus stop and has divided legal opinion
Spain's Supreme Court has upheld a sexual assault conviction against a man who kissed a woman's hand without her consent at a bus stop in Madrid, ruling that the act went beyond mere harassment and carried a clear sexual component.
The incident dates back to 2023, when the man approached a woman at a bus stop, kissed her hand and made gestures suggesting she should follow him in exchange for payment. He was found guilty of sexual assault and fined €1,620, a decision that was upheld by Madrid's provincial tribunal before the man took his case to the Supreme Court.
His legal team argued that there had been no violence or intimidation involved and that while the woman "might have felt bothered, offended, victim of an intrusion into her comfort zone, there was never a clear risk for her sexual integrity."
They also pointed out that the incident had taken place in a public space, near a police station and in broad daylight, and argued that at most it should be considered the lesser offence of sexual harassment in a public place.
The Supreme Court disagreed. In its ruling, it found that the encounter had gone beyond harassment, stating that there had been "a clear sexual component because he even kissed her hand."
A woman, the court added, "cannot tolerate being subjected to a man taking her hand and kissing her without consent in acts that have a clear and obvious sexual connotation."
The ruling wasn't unanimous though. Two magistrates issued dissenting opinions, arguing that a hand kiss did not amount to sexual assault.
"A kiss on the hand of another person is, in our culture, a form of greeting, now obsolete," they said, adding that along with a kiss on the cheek or a handshake, such gestures "are not acts of a sexual nature."
The case is the latest in a series of high-profile moments that have kept the issue of sexual consent firmly in the public eye in Spain. The country's so-called ‘Only Yes Means Yes’ law, passed in 2022, shifted the legal emphasis onto consent and removed the requirement to prove violence or intimidation for an act to be classified as sexual assault.
The following year, former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales sparked a national controversy when he kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the Women's World Cup final celebrations.
Rubiales maintained the kiss was consensual, a claim Hermoso denied, and he was ultimately found guilty of sexual assault in 2025.
