a court of Barcelona has decided not to sanction the monitor of the special education school Taiga, Joaquin M.for the sexual abuse committed against four people with disabilities. According to information from The Countrythe sentence is based on the victims’ failure to express their experiences in a clear and coherent manner.
During the trial, which took place in April, the court heard the statements of the victims, who recounted their experiences with the support of psychologists and pedagogues. To avoid the revictimization of these vulnerable peoplethe magistrates decided not to summon them again and used their previous testimonies as pre-constituted evidence. The Country reports that after analyzing four of these stories, the magistrates of the Ninth Section concluded that it was not possible to convict the monitor.
A., which presents a 70% disabilitysaid that, during a trip to the shelter, Joaquín M. touched his penis and masturbated it. However, the court, as confirmed by the Spanish newspaper, described his testimony as “very scarce, avoidant, poorly intelligibleabsolutely unstructured and full of insults towards the accused”.
A.’s speech therapist insisted that he witnessed “a very significant change” in his behavior. “He started relieving himself and using foul language,” she said. For the court, however, the “insufficient and imprecise statements” of the victim cannot constitute evidence against the accused.
The statement of another victim, B., was difficult to transcribe. For this reason, the court found it “absolutely unstructured”, with “absolute inaccuracies” and “mechanical expressions”, as he explains. The Country. In the other two cases that have also led to acquittal, corresponding to two brothers (C. and D.), the test could not be evaluated due to his mental incapacity “it prevents them from any type of communication.”
Finally, the sentence, which is subject to appealwill be rewritten by order of the court “in an easy-to-read format adapted to people with mental disabilities.”
Two crimes of continuous sexual abuse
The Barcelona Court has supported the “credibility and reliability” of the three remaining victims in the case. Joaquín M. has been sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison by two crimes of sexual abuse continued with penetration. Likewise, a fine for exhibitionismafter being caught masturbating in front of another student, identified as G.
Joaquín M., who was 46 years old at the time of his arrest by the Mossos d’Esquadra in May 2017, only had two years of experience as president of the Taiga sports club and monitor of sports activities. On one of the outings, another monitor detected unusual behavior between him and a student, which led to the alarm being raised.
The school conducted an investigation that included interviews with those affected who had greater capacity to express themselves. After investigations, Taiga considered that Joaquín M. had abused at least three students. He activated the protocol for cases of abuse and immediately removed him from his duties.
The judge decided to initially release him provisionally with the prohibition of communicating with the three affected minors.
The families of the victims filed a complaint against the monitor, who was arrested. The judge initially decided to release him provisionally.establishing the prohibition of communicating with the three affected minors. Later, other families joined the complaint, bringing the total number to seven.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court has disqualified Joaquín M. from carrying out teaching or sports activities. He has also been prohibited from approaching or communicating with the victims, and has been compensation of 55,000 euros to the three victims.
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