National Police officers have detained a religion teacher in a Valencia municipality on suspicion of sexually abusing about six children from the same early childhood class. The alleged abuses are currently confined to a single school in the Horta area; local media have withheld the school’s name to protect the children and their families and to prevent further victimization of the youngsters.
The incidents came to light on Friday, October 4, when the first mother went to the school in a highly agitated state to report that the religion teacher was abusing her four-year-old son. She based her concerns on the previous afternoon, when the child, at home, played a pretend game with several superhero figures, assigning names to two classmates and to the teacher. The boy indicated that this person kissed another child, and the mother pressed for details. The boy explained that the teacher, using his given name, would kiss him, a gesture tied to a moustache or beard that appeared unshaven or several days old.
The mother, alerted by the description, returned the next morning to the school and spoke with the principal. Although a police report had not yet been filed, the school activated the regional Education Department’s sexual-abuse protocol, removing the teacher from contact with students and notifying the Office of the Prosecutor for Minors. Sources close to the investigation indicate that the accused has been on leave since the Monday following the initial verbal report.
That Monday, October 7, the mother, overwhelmed, returned to the school accompanied by the child’s father. They stood at the main entrance and publicly warned every arriving parent not to leave their children there, claiming that a pedophile was among the staff. The director and the head of studies attempted to calm them, and, in a crisis moment, the mother uttered threats that prompted a call to emergency services and dispatched National Police patrols to the area.
Tension and accusations at the school
After calm returned, the mother went home and, the following day, filed a formal complaint at the police station. The unit dedicated to families and minors opened an investigation. In the written statement, she reiterated the informal description given to the school’s leadership and provided the names of two other children in her son’s class who might also be facing sexual violence, the same children the boy had used in the doll game.
In both cases, the parents confirmed that, when asked, the children described several episodes that could indicate sexual assaults and had not spoken about them previously out of embarrassment.
Six cases under investigation
So far, the minors, all from the same infant class, have recounted incidents that could support the charges. The authorities detained the suspect at his home on Thursday, and investigators examined the computers and other devices likely to store material. They were taken for imaging and forensic analysis by the Policía Científica, following standard procedures and under court orders that also seek to uncover potential pedophilic images or videos.
The children described conduct that seemed unusually affectionate for a teacher who did not even teach all of them, which has intensified outrage among families since the alleged offenses appear to have occurred when the teacher took the children outside the usual spaces of the school.
From this point, the judge will arrange for psychologists from the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) in Valencia to set a date for the children to be examined in the Gesell chamber. This child-friendly setting allows questions to be asked by the judge, the prosecution, and the defense through the psychologist while the child plays or remains calmly seated, unaware that a judicial panel observes from behind a mirrored wall. Those sessions are recorded and count as pretrial evidence, reducing the risk of re-traumatization for the youngsters when they face the judicial process.