Manuel Blanco Vela: Conviction, Appeal, and Why He’s Not in Prison

Manuel Blanco Vela is a Spanish tour guide convicted in February 2025 by Spain’s National Court, the Audiencia Nacional, of sexually assaulting three American students on trips he organized through his company, Discover Excursions. He was sentenced to a combined eight and a half years in prison after an appellate reduction, but he remains free on provisional release while a further appeal is pending before the Spanish Supreme Court.¹

Who He Is and How He Met His Victims

Blanco Vela, sometimes known as “Manu White,” ran Discover Excursions, a travel company that organized trips for international students across Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. He started as an intern there in 2010, rose to director, and eventually bought the business. Its legal entity was registered as Voodoo Travel S.L.U.²

Survivors described him as personable and approachable, someone who quickly earned the trust of the young Americans on his tours. Several also said they believed the company was affiliated with their universities, which lowered their guard further.³

The Assaults the Court Ruled On

Three cases formed the basis of the conviction.

In November 2013, 19-year-old Gabrielle Vega booked a weekend trip to Tangier, Morocco, through Discover Excursions. According to her account, Blanco Vela discouraged the group from leaving the hotel at night and later brought champagne to their room. After drinking, Vega said she felt unusually disoriented and lost consciousness, then woke to find him assaulting her. A friend confirmed seeing Vega in a bathroom with Blanco Vela for roughly 30 minutes.⁴⁵ She did not report the assault to police at the time and remained silent for four years.

In May 2017, two other American students, Hayley McAleese and Carly Van Ostenbridge, both 19, were on a Discover Excursions trip to Lagos, Portugal. The court found that Blanco Vela used physical force, blocking the exit of his hotel room and coercing the women into unwanted sexual acts. One account described him pressuring the students to perform a “sexy dance” and attempting to prevent them from leaving.²

How the Case Came to Light

In December 2017, after learning that another woman had been victimized by the same guide, Vega posted her account on Facebook. Within two days, eight women contacted her alleging similar experiences.⁴

In April 2018, Vega appeared on Megyn Kelly Today with McAleese and Van Ostenbridge. The television appearance brought a wave of new reports. Attorney Mark Eiglarsh, who represented Vega, said roughly a dozen more women contacted his office, and Vega said more than 30 eventually reached out. One estimate cited in reporting put the total number of women who may have been assaulted or subjected to attempted assault by Blanco Vela at between 50 and 100.⁶³

When Vega contacted Discover Excursions directly, the company did not respond. It later told her attorney that the individuals involved were “no longer employed by them.”⁴

Spain’s Audiencia Nacional opened a formal investigation in May 2018. The case landed at the national level because the alleged crimes crossed borders. Investigators moved slowly, with most survivors living in the United States and testimony requiring videoconference coordination and translation into Spanish.⁵

The Death of Lauren Bajorek

In the summer of 2015, a 21-year-old American student named Lauren Bajorek died after falling from the balcony of Blanco Vela’s apartment in Seville on her birthday. Her family initially believed the death was accidental but later sought legal help after learning of the sexual assault allegations.⁷ No homicide charges were filed in connection with her death. A separate civil proceeding found Blanco Vela liable for negligence.²

Conviction and Penalties

Trial opened in January 2025 at the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid. On February 10, 2025, the Criminal Chamber found Blanco Vela guilty of sexually assaulting all three women. The court sentenced him to six years for the assault on Vega in Morocco and to one and a half years each for the assaults on McAleese and Van Ostenbridge in Portugal, for an initial total of nine years.¹

The court also imposed:

A seven-and-a-half-year ban on working as a tour guide.
A combined period of supervised liberty after prison.
Restitution of €40,000 to Vega and €1,500 each to McAleese and Van Ostenbridge.
A six-year no-contact and distance order for Vega and one-year orders for the other two women.

A fourth woman, Amanda Gormsen, filed a complaint and petitioned to join the case, but the court dismissed it.⁸

Blanco Vela was tried under Spain’s reformed sexual assault framework, the 2022 “Only Yes Means Yes” law, which merged the former offenses of sexual assault and sexual abuse into a single unified offense built around consent. His six-year sentence for the Vega assault included a mitigating factor for “undue delays,” acknowledging the seven-year gap between investigation and trial.⁷

Appeal and Reduced Sentence

The defense appealed, arguing errors in the assessment of evidence, violation of the presumption of innocence, and failure to properly apply mitigating factors for the delays. On April 1, 2025, the Appellate Chamber of the Audiencia Nacional upheld the conviction but reduced the total sentence by six months, from nine years to eight years and six months. The reduction applied to one of the two Portugal counts: because that victim had not formally appeared as a party, the court defaulted to the one-year sentence the prosecution had requested rather than the original year and a half. The six-year sentence for the Vega assault and the year-and-a-half sentence for the other Portugal count were untouched.⁹

The defense then filed a cassation appeal to the Spanish Supreme Court. The case remained pending there as of mid-2026.⁸

Why He Is Not in Prison

One week after sentencing, the Audiencia Nacional released Blanco Vela from custody. The Criminal Chamber reasoned that the sentence was not yet final and that he posed no flight risk, noting he had complied with every judicial obligation through the years-long investigation and never attempted to evade the process.¹⁰

As of late June 2026, he remained free under these conditions: his passport has been confiscated, he is prohibited from leaving Spain, he must appear weekly at his nearest court, and he must notify the court of any change of address. The Audiencia Nacional reaffirmed the conditions, concluding that the flight risk had not increased.¹

The Netflix Docuseries

In early 2026, Netflix released a three-part docuseries titled The Predator of Seville, which told the story of Blanco Vela’s assaults primarily through the accounts of his victims.¹¹ Vega was prominently featured, describing the conviction as the “best day of my life” and reflecting on the years-long fight for accountability.⁵

1
Diario de Sevilla. Audiencia Nacional Mantiene Libertad Guía
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Entertainment Weekly. Where Is Manuel Blanco Vela Now
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Cosmopolitan. Manuel Blanco Vela Now True Story
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NBC Miami. Woman Claims Tour Guide Raped Her While Abroad
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People. Where Is Manuel Blanco Vela Now
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NBC News. Young Woman Alleges She Was Raped by Tour Director on Overseas Trip
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EL PAÍS. Motive: The US Podcast Investigating an Alleged Rapist From the Spanish City of Seville
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Telecinco. Historia Depredador Sevilla Manu White Condena Agresiones Sexuales
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elDiario.es. Audiencia Nacional Rebaja Seis Meses Pena Cárcel Guía Turístico Condenado Delitos Sexuales
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EL PAÍS. La Audiencia Nacional Deja en Libertad Provisional al Empresario Turístico Condenado por Violar a Tres Estudiantes Estadounidenses
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Esquire. The Predator of Seville Netflix True Crime Docs