Spanish PP Mayor claims women in lifts could rip off bras and skirts

The Spanish nationalist mayor of Valladolid (Partido Popular) said he had qualms about getting into a lift and warned men to 'beware'. "I have qualms about getting into an elevator," the conservative mayor of Valladolid in central Spain, Francisco Javier León de la Riva, told on Thursday. "Imagine you get into an elevator and there is a girl who is out to get you, she enters with you, tears off her bra or skirt and flees shouting that you have tried to assault her," he said. "Beware of this kind of thing."

León de la Riva has apologised after an outcry over his comments that lone women in lifts could rip off their bras and skirts to make false accusations of assault. Faced with a public backlash, the mayor offered an apology. "I am sorry that statements taken out of context have had such repercussions," he told Spanish journalists on Friday. "To anyone who was offended, I have no problem offering an apology."