A British man faces a 20-year sentence in a Spanish prison for killing a man he says was in self defence.
Aaron Rainbow, 50, is accused of stabbing Oscar Tornero Rovira, 38, six times after a six-hour drug-fueled night turned to violence in February 2023.
Rainbow has been in custody ever since the incident at Rovira’s apartment in Vallgorguina, 30 minutes north of Barcelona.
Neighbours called the police after hearing screams and when police arrived they found Rovira dead and Rainbow in a ‘confused state’.
He immediately confessed to killing Rovira but insisted he was acting in self defence, after he feared their sexual encounter was being live-streamed and he would be killed himself.
Rainbow’s trial is about to begin in Barcelona, and his family back in the UK have compared his case to a ‘Netflix thriller’.
They claim Spanish police botched the evidence and failed to investigate electronic devices which could confirm his fears of ‘being watched by others and set up’.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Rainbow’s brother Dan said: ‘After his arrest, Aaron said that he had been drugged, and he was aware of people watching online via cameras and he feared for his life.
‘He wanted to get out of there because he had an uneasy feeling. He grabbed the knife in self-defence and that’s when he fatally stabbed the guy he was in the house with.
‘It really is like something out of a Netflix show, but this is real life here.
‘Aaron said what made him think people were watching is that Oscar started making hand signals to the camera and he thought “s*** – someone is watching, I need to get out of here sharpish”.
‘The guy made a dash for the door, my brother thought he was letting people into the house, so he grabbed a knife, the fight has started and he’s then fatally stabbed him but we say he was put into a position of fear, and the fight or flight response just kicked in.’
Dan and his brother are originally from Weybridge in Surrey, and Dan says he didn’t know his brother is gay until his arrest.
Rovira worked in a clothing store in Barcelona during the day, but also worked as a male escort. Rainbow had known him for about six years before the fatal stabbing, after they met online.
The indictment for the trial alleges Rainbow ‘hired the victim for a night of sex and drugs’ after flying into the Spanish city that night.
It adds Rainbow attacked him in an ‘unforeseen’ manner when he was ‘in the tranquillity of his home and in the context of intimate relations that he was maintaining with the attacker’.
Prosecutor Felix Martin said a cocktail of drugs, including date rape substance GHB, cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine and MDMA, were taken the night of the stabbing.
Mr Martin said that while cameras were installed in the house for security, they were switched off on the night Rovira died.
Rainbow’s lawyer Pedro Javier Gomez Martinez said: ‘Whether we are dealing with a drug-induced delirium or a real situation is something that only the destroyed router can clarify.
‘But so far, nothing has been investigated despite multiple requests, and we suspect evidence has been destroyed and this evidence could prove his innocence in the case.’
Dan added: ‘The main focus is that they are not looking at some serious evidence and the standout is the router that was removed from the crime scene the day after the incident by a friend of the deceased.
‘We believe people were connected to that router at the time, but it’s been professionally sabotaged, and the data cannot be extracted but the prosecution just don’t seem to be concerned.
‘We think that at least two other people were in close proximity to the house and connected to that router the night all this happened, and it’s critical to Aaron’s legitimate defence case.
‘We believe this was a secret sex studio and that Aaron was duped into going there, drugged, with the intention of whatever was going to happen being filmed and watched by people, with who knows what would happen at the end.
‘My brother thinks he was the victim of a live show and says he heard heavy breathing from somewhere in the room that night via a camera and he really feared for his life.
‘We just don’t trust the police because they say that nothing of relevance was found on the electronic devices, but we say they haven’t been properly examined, and my brother is facing a long time behind bars.
‘We have our own IT experts sending documents to court saying the router was damaged, but no one is listening to us which makes us think they are protecting someone.
‘I didn’t even know my brother was gay until all this happened. He’s in prison and his life has been taken away from him, he has a life to get back and career to get back to.
‘He and the family are just waiting for the justice system to deliver and we hoped they would, but it’s clear now they have no intention of doing that. It makes us think was something going on at a higher level?
‘If my brother didn’t do what he did how do we know he would have got out of there alive that night? There is more to this than meets the eye.
‘Aaron is a kind and gentle human being who is a highly respected professional and has no history of any violent behaviour or criminal record.
‘His actions on the night were initiated through extreme fear and in our opinion self-defense; however, the legal system has chosen not to fully investigate the truth.’
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