Sometimes numbers help to see the true proportions of things and, as a result, better understand them. With The Marist Case the opposite happens. Journalistic investigation into El Periódico de Catalunya from the Prensa Ibérica group finally came to light 51 police complaints against 18 teachers From the schools of Sants-Les Corts, la Inmaculada, and Anna Ravell (12 devout siblings, five lay teachers, and a cafeteria watchdog) (Barcelona), Champagne (Badalona), Valdemi (Mataro) and Montserrat (leida) due to events Between 1962 and 2018. This newspaper also identified more victims who did not file complaints from these centres, and other victims from other centres. victim anyone Girona. In total, more than a hundred were affected. But neither the reported cases nor the published cases resonated in a justice handcuffed by a statute of limitations for crimes already overtaken, which the Marist Case itself helped reformulate.
Concerning this underlying injustice, the only Marist professor to whom victims can legally prosecute, Joaquim Benitez. But the Benítez case became more than a consolation for the victims who were not consoled by justice, it became a disastrous brooch. It would be good to look back to remember why. With this secular teacher, the scandal of hidden pedestrians in religious schools organized by the Generalitat began to come to light in February 2016. When did it happen manual barberThe father of the Benítez victim opened an email account so that former students of the Sants-Les Corts center could help gather new testimonies in support of his son’s complaint. This was just the beginning.
Of the twenty people who went to the police station Mossos d’Esquadra Settling accounts with ex-PE teachers who locked them in a windowless office and sexually abused them, making them believe that some fake physiotherapy knowledge helped them recover from injuries, not just four demandsIt passed the prescription filter, including that of Barbero’s son. They sufficed to prosecute Benitez, who was sentenced to 21 years and 9 months in prison for sexual abuse in April 2019.
Benítez admitted to harassing students at the Sants-Les Corts school in court, but had done so before in two interviews with El Periódico de Catalunya. He also declared that he acted with impunity in the trial. Felt “protected” by Maristsinstitution responsible for the school. It is a statement that justice ignores, hiding behind the statute of limitations, which does not want to deal with such crimes being concealed by the order. Benítez was the only person who paid the bill for the dishes they had broken for decades.
Benitez’s sentence was four counts of sexual misconduct. In the most serious case, the former teacher gave the student a blowjob and asked him to penetrate her as well. In three other cases, the accused gave oral sex to a child and touched two children. He was shown to always use the same pattern: He persuaded students to come to his office, stretched him on a stretcher, and mistreated them, under the pretext of treating an injury or ailment.
Benitez’s sentence was severe: 21 years and 9 months in prison. This newspaper is unaware of the harsher penalties imposed on teachers for sexual abuse in Spain. It wasn’t punishment that made the process against this professor a disastrous brooch for the Marist Case. The problem was a pedophile accused by more than twenty students, who was unknown but could abuse many more victims. Not sentenced to a single day of preventive jail time despite confessing to such crimes. And after being convicted by the Barcelona Court, he was freed during Benítez’s successive appeals until now adjudicated. Supreme Courtwhich this Wednesday finally approved the sentence against the teacher.
The prosecution and the specific charges reasoned that Benítez should await the course of these appeals behind bars because, in fact, they agreed with some, if not all, of the sentence. In his texts, if he believed that the prisoner himself should be sentenced – this was also publicly stated by Benítez himself – there was no reason for him to continue on the street. But the Barcelona Court disagreed.
A reported and confessed pedophile was released more than 2,400 days after complaints and confession. And a reported, confessed, and convicted pedophile was released more than 1,200 days after his conviction. Figures that don’t help to understand the Marist Case. Or maybe yes.
Benítez will go to jail in the coming days following the Supreme Court decision.