The

Provincial Court of Córdoba

has sentenced a priest and professor of religion at a school in Córdoba to 20 years in prison for continuously sexually abusing four underage students whom he taught.

The condemned man, who belongs to the Franciscan Order, has been acquitted of two other crimes of the same caliber since the touching had no "sexual significance" according to the court.

According to the events reported in the sentence, to which EL MUNDO has had access, the priest committed sexual abuse during 2012/2013 and 2014/2015.

The victims were

under 13 years of age

and suffered these abuses when the priest invited them to come to his office "for sweets" or when, in class, he sat them on his knees to correct homework or when they stayed with him alone during recess.

This

modus operandi

was the one he used for both the third and fourth year Primary students and that, years later, he continued to use.

Of the six victims, one of them suffered another episode of abuse in a camp organized by the school.

These events date back to 2014 when, with the excuse of going to get sweets for the rest of the children, she and another minor accompanied him to a room, where he asked them to

sit on his knees

.

While one managed to get away, the other was unable to escape and was sexually abused.

At that time he was 11 years old.

After finishing the camps, the minor told her parents what had happened, who sent the center a letter urging the director to make a decision.

On December 2, 2014, the school removed him from his post.

However, neither the school nor the parents decided to report, despite the fact that the minor had to be referred by her pediatrician to the Mental Health Unit due to the

"profound repercussion"

that the abuse had had on her, "reflecting the effects on her behavior, consisting of a feeling of anguish about the place, fear of men, decreased performance and an adjustment disorder in follow-up, which ends up remitting and disappears when the center takes measures ".

The beginning of the judicial procedure that has ended up condemning the priest occurred in May 2019, five years after the first abuses.

On that date, the minor and her class were organizing

their graduation party

when their classmates proposed to invite the priest, although he was no longer their teacher.

This again provoked the feeling of anguish that the Mental Health Unit had already diagnosed at the beginning of her treatment.

The fact of meeting that day with the one who had been her abuser -although the management of the center assured her that this was not going to happen- provoked in her

an anxiety that led her to a great state of intoxication

during a day of the May Fair from the Cordovan capital.

When she was assisted by agents of the Local Police, she revealed the facts to them, which led the Police to

initiate the investigation ex officio

.

Both the minor and her parents had to file a complaint, which was later joined by

five other victims

.

However, the trial did not have a private accusation since no family wanted to appear and the minors have only been defended by the Public Prosecutor's Office.

In this sense, the magistrate Francisco de Paula Sánchez Zamorano makes special mention in his sentence to the

"degree of profound lack of protection in which the minors found themselves"

since "even their own parents were tempted to grant more reliability to the adult who was abusing them even when one revealed it to them. "

In addition to the prison sentence, the Provincial Court of Córdoba has imposed the penalty of disqualification for any profession or trade, whether paid or not, that involves regular contact with minors for a time greater than three years than five years of imprisonment imposed for each crime, the latter "given the special risk that, due to its

habitual dedication, not only to teaching, but within the priestly work,

of contact with minors, they

can cover their possible future activities. "He will also have to compensate the victims with 16,000 euros.

Position of the Franciscan Order

The Franciscan Order to which the priest belongs has issued a statement in which it has announced that it will file an

appeal

before the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia.

In the document released, the Order assures that "it is an inescapable duty to know the truth of the denounced facts" for which it will present an appeal before the Superior Court of the Junta de Andalucía.

Despite the ruling, the congregation continues to refer to the minors as

"alleged victims",

since the court has considered proven the sexual abuse to which they were subjected.

In addition, the Franciscans have lamented "the damage caused" although they have appealed again, as in another statement they did at the beginning of the trial, to the presumption of innocence of the already convicted person.

They have alluded to the second instance "to which every person is entitled when the unfavorable sentence is not yet final."

As EL MUNDO has known, the congregation does not contemplate the expulsion of the friar from the Order since "

one thing is the civil process and another is the canonical one

."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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