National
President of Barcelona Court in trouble over domestic violence joke
By h.b.
May 16, 2008 - 6:52 PM

A row has broken out over the comments made by the President of the Barcelona Court, José Luis Barrera, who tried to joke about domestic violence during his presentation of a report to some 30 journalists.

When asked about the recent privacy ruling against the wishes of the Princess of Asturias’ sister, Telma Ortiz, he came out with the line:
‘This is like the man who kills his wife, and they ask him why he did it and he says, Aha! have you never wanted to do it?’

It was not the only unfortunate comment from Barrera who also considered that judicial language was not understood by the majority of the public, giving the example of ‘servicios comunes’ which he thought were considered as some sort of bisexual urinals.

Later he issued a statement saying that his comments had been taken out of context, but video evidence shows otherwise. He added that he wanted to make it clear that he was never joking about the tragedy which was domestic violence.