Spain’s Supreme Court rejects £5.1m compensation claim by Real Madrid after Catalan TV show depicted Pepe as Hannibal Lecter

THE Spanish Supreme Court has rejected Real Madrid’s £5.1million compensation claim after a Catalan TV station compared their players to wild animals.

The video from 2013 showed Los Blancos throughout the years brutally fouling opponents, followed by comparisons with hyenas.

While Pepe was also depicted as Hannibal Lecter, the famous cannibal played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film, Silence of the Lambs.

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A Madrid court had originally ruled that TV3 had to pay £172,236 in damages as three clips were considered ‘degrading’ and ‘slanderous’ — and that they had crossed the boundaries of free speech.

But the case was referred to the Supreme Court, which ruled wholly in favour of the Barcelona-based channel, and they face no charge.

The Spanish judicial power ruled the video was nothing more than ‘satire’ and that no rule had been broken — that, despite its ‘provocative nature', had not gone too far.

According to the judges, it was simply a humorous take on the long-standing rivalry between the two sides.

The video starts with a shocking stamp by Juanito on Bayern Munich’s Lothar Matthaus during a European Cup clash in 1987.

Before moving on to modern day fouls and kick outs from the likes of Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and even Mesut Ozil.

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Lionel Messi was the recipient of most of the strong challenges — which occurred during the height of the Jose Mourinho-Pep Guardiola rivalry.

In between these clips, it skips to scenes from a National Geographic program which shows wild animals stalking and attacking their prey.

Before finally showing Pepe’s infamous kick at a stricken opened then depicted his face mask worn Hopkins' by Dr. Lecter.