He drugged the victims and raped them in the parish: priest sentenced to 52 years

The priest from Malaga accused of having drugged and sexually abused four women between 2014 and 2018, acts which he filmed and which were discovered by his partner on a computer in the house they shared in Melilla, he was sentenced to 52 years in prison by the Provincial Court of Malaga. The accused, 35, known as Father Franwas found guilty of four counts of sexual assault, three of them with penetration, and four counts of disclosure of private information, both of a continuous nature, according to the sentence, obtained by the EFE agency.

Regarding civil liability, the defendant, Francisco JC, originally from Vélez-Málaga and currently in pre-trial detention after being arrested on 11 September 2023, will have to compensate each of the victims for the psychological trauma and moral damage suffered, for a total amount of 403,129 euros. The Diocese of Malaga will be subsidiary responsible for the payment of compensation. The Diocese of Malaga has always maintained that the events occurred in a private context, during recreational activities and not related to religious practice, and therefore considered itself not subsidiaryly liable. However, the Bishop of Malaga, José Antonio Satué, has already announced that the Church will financially compensate the four victims for the damage caused. The Court, as supported by the public prosecutor and the appellants, believes that the facts occurred in the context of religious activities, motivated by his membership of various institutions, and that it was in these circumstances that he became friends with the victims.

The dynamics of attacks and the value of video evidence

The priest, taking advantage of this friendship, administered them an unknown substance which induced a profound state of drowsiness and loss of consciousness, at which point he sexually assaulted them. The Court underlines that the probative value of the recordings and photographs is “indisputable”allowing us to “deduce beyond any doubt” the participation of the accused in the facts, not only because he appears in some of them, but also because it is established that the recordings were made in various parish residences, and further corroborated by an anatomical report relating to the characteristics of some parts of his body.

The Court also indicates that it is proven that the accused took toxic or psychotropic substances, shared them with some witnesses and even showed them to a group of friends. As for the victims, the nature of the substance ingested could not be determined due to the time that had passed, but it is underlined that “it was necessarily a toxic substance that caused a clear loss of consciousness”.

The Court’s judgment on the absolute contempt for human dignity

The judges reprimand the accused for “absolute contempt” not only for the sexual integrity of the victims, but also for the most basic human dignityhaving left them unconscious. “Not only were they unaware of what was being done to them, but they were also incapable of defending themselves,” the statement reads. As regards the evaluation of the evidence, the Court indicates that the testimonies given in court, together with the medico-legal reports, the technical reports and all the other documents presented and filed in the documents, led the Court “without any doubt to the belief that the facts took place as described”. In addition to the prison sentences, the defendant was banned from approaching three of the victims for thirteen years and banned from approaching the fourth victim for five years.