The Sálvame case enters a new dimension. The Madrid Prosecutor’s Office has submitted its provisional conclusions on the alleged secret revelation scheme devised between Spanish paparazzo Gustavo González and police officer Ángel Jesús Fernández Hita, who provided him with confidential information about celebrities taken from the Corps’ databases to reveal it on the now-defunct Sálvame — broadcast on Telecinco and produced by La Fábrica de la Tele—. Although the investigating magistrate Marcelino Sexmero considered that crimes could be attributed to several employees of the celebrity gossip program and the production company, the public prosecutor limits its accusation to González (for whom it requests 477 years in prison), police officer Fernández Hita (555 years in prison), and a second implicated officer, Iván Caveda (16 years).
The penalties demanded are astronomical for the two main defendants because prosecutor Fidel Solera Guijarro attributes 127 crimes of secret revelation to the paparazzo; and 142 to Fernández Hita — since there are dozens of affected individuals —. However, in its own document, the public prosecutor recalls that, at most, they would serve “triple the time” of the highest sentence imposed for each of those crimes separately. That is, if the public prosecution’s thesis succeeds, Gustavo González would spend a maximum of 15 years behind bars; and his police friend, 12 years.
But the Prosecutor’s Office’s demands do not end there. It demands that González pay a fine of more than 600,000 euros and be disqualified for five years from “practicing the profession of director, collaborator of agencies and media; paparazzo, journalist, editor, and screenwriter.” For his part, it demands a sanction of 62,400 euros for Fernández Hita. And both, according to the indictment, should face more than 400,000 euros in compensation to the affected celebrities. In that regard, the public prosecutor adds that La Fábrica de la Tele must respond as a subsidiary civil liable party for part of that amount.
The Sálvame case began in April 2017, when the Internal Affairs Unit (UAI) of the National Police detected that Sálvame was broadcasting confidential data collected in police reports live. Their investigations led them to Ángel Jesús Fernández Hita, a rank-and-file officer assigned to the Mobile Brigade of the Citizen Security Police Station in Madrid. The Prosecutor’s Office emphasizes that, from 2009 to 2018, he took advantage of his position to “seize” reserved personal data of dozens of celebrities (such as records, license plate numbers, home addresses…), which he provided to two collaborators of the television program with whom he had built a relationship: Gustavo González; and commentator Mila Ximénez, who passed away in 2021.
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At the conclusion of his investigations, Judge Sexmero estimated that the scheme had accessed reserved information of at least 182 people: among them, singers such as Isabel Pantoja, Francisco González, Omar Montes, or Àlex Casademunt; public figures such as Belén Esteban, Ángel Garó, Aramís Fuster; athletes such as Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Miguel Torres, and Alfredo Di Stefano; or reality show contestants like Gran Hermano.
The magistrate already dismissed the case against Óscar Cornejo and Adrián Madrid, directors and owners of La Fábrica de la Tele (which was fully acquired by Mediaset in 2024); Alberto Díaz, former director of the program; and other former Sálvame workers for “not clearly knowing the origin of the information obtained.” However, he prosecuted other journalists for crimes of secret revelation, such as David Valldeperas, former director of the program; the production company; and porn actress María Pasqual, alias María Lapiedra, former partner of Gustavo González. For all of them, the Prosecutor’s Office requests dismissal — only maintaining La Fábrica de la Tele as a subsidiary civil liable party —.
Regarding the paparazzo, the public prosecutor emphasizes that he had the “intention to obtain profits through the illicitly obtained information” after conspiring with Fernández Hita. When he was not at his workplace, this police officer called on his colleague Caveda to look for confidential data. “They accessed, revealed, and seized reports and other reserved personal and family data,” the accusation concludes.