Cristina Rubio Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Thursday, February 29, 2024-18:13

Víctor P., former teacher and former coach of the La Salle Bonanova school football team, in the upper area of ​​Barcelona, ​​sat in the dock this Thursday accused of having sexually abused a minor for three years - between 2010 and 2013 - to the point of marrying his mother and having children with her to live under the same roof.

A case that shook the news in 2021 as it involved a teacher linked to a well-known Barcelona center and after some details emerged, such as that Víctor P. wrote down in a notebook the names of at least seven alleged victims whom he attacked.

One of them was G., a minor who was studying at Salle Bonanova when Víctor was a teacher (Primary 5) and coach of the school's soccer team.

The trial began with the statement of the complainant, which was made behind closed doors to preserve his privacy: the boy has confirmed his complaint and another young man who denounced the same man for allegedly sexually assaulting him when he was a minor has also testified, something which is tried in another case.

The complainant's mother explained that her son and the coach met through football, and "with the passage of time the relationship evolved and became a relationship of affection and adoration."

The woman has testified in court that it all started when the coach suggested the woman take the child on a trip to Romania to watch some soccer games.

So, she was reluctant but finally agreed with the condition that she and her other daughter, younger than the complainant, also go.

After that trip, Víctor P. proposed "by email" to the woman, they began a relationship and went to live together with G. and his sister.

The victim's mother has stated that "the fights between the two [Víctor P. and the minor] lasted many years" and there were multiple attacks on her son by the former teacher, who on one occasion even apologized to the woman and assured who had suffered abuse as a child. "I felt sorry for the life he had had, I gave him a second chance and let him return home," he explained.

In a lengthy statement, the woman has also detailed that she once caught the man showering at the same time as the child, and only received a "surreal explanation that she did not understand";

and on another occasion she came home alerted by her daughter of a fight between the two and saw that "when my son was only 12 years old," he had moved "a closet" by himself and had placed it in front of the door "to avoid" that the accused could enter.

"Mom, throw him out of the house, this guy is crazy!" She yelled at me, the woman recalled in court.

The mother discovered the attacks that her son had suffered seven years later, in October 2020. "The day my son confessed to me what had happened, then I understood many things. For me, that was the explanation for everything that I didn't know. "I had understood for years, the look of sadness that was always in my son's eyes, the explanation for 'Mom, throw him out of the house," concluded the mother, who regretted not having realized it.

The Prosecutor's Office requests a 10-year prison sentence for the accused for sexual assault, which the defendant allegedly committed recurrently at least between 2010 and 2013, as well as 8 years of supervised release and the prohibition of approaching or communicating with the victim for 5 years.

The Ministry also requests from the defendant compensation of 20,000 euros to compensate the victim, and points to both the Club Esportiu La Salle and the Colegio La Salle Bonanova as subsidiary civil parties.

The trial will continue on March 11, when the accused will testify after his defense has requested that he do so last.