Countdown to Barcelona Marists’ pedophile jailed

While fleeing, with his head covered, masked and without explanation, Benitez leaves the Palace of Justice in Barcelona. At the door was Manuel Barbero, the father of one of the victims of the former teacher’s sexual abuse, promoting the procedure that would have kept the prisoner behind bars for years, alongside numerous media outlets. person. To the old teacher About twenty of his former students charged him, but only four of those cases referred to crimes not yet foreseen by the law.. The other 16 Marist teachers, most of whom were religious brothers, could not be prosecuted as all the complaints of their victims were also foreseen. Despite this, Benitez’s conviction is the most severe to date against a teacher for sexual misconduct.

The final decision

The Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 21 years and 9 months in prison on 7 October. Prison sentence handed down by the Barcelona Court in April 2019 (later upheld by the Catalonian Supreme Court of Justice) to a former physical education teacher at the Marist school in Barcelona for sexually abusing four students when they were younger. The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss Benítez’s appeal rendered the sentence handed down by the Court final, and therefore days are left before the judgment is enforced and he goes to prison for the execution of the sentence. He also started running disqualification penalties later on.

In accordance with the Victims Act, four graduates may request to be informed about the status of the case. In this way, as victims, they have the right to be informed of decisions that may concern them and those that may in fact pose a risk to them. Marists’ insurance company deposited 120,000 euros, which was determined as compensation in the penalty.