The Court of Girona has sentenced the Quart drum teacher who sexually abused five students between 2009 and 2020 to 26 and a half years in prison. The court considers it proven that the accused “took advantage of the admiration for his status as a teacher.” and musician” that the students had of him to abuse them in the basement of his house.
The court has given credibility to the version presented by the five victims, only one of whom was of legal age when the events began. During the trial they explained the modus operandi that the teacher followed to commit the abuse, which occurred in the basement of the private house where he taught drum classes.
The victims explained that he began by giving them back massages under the pretext that they were tense, and then moved on to “inappropriate touching”, masturbation and fellatio. One of the students was only twelve years old when he began to suffer the first abuse.
“He told me that it was a normal thing, that he was an open person and that a lot of people did it; but I was 12 years old and had never had any relationship,” he said during the trial that took place at the beginning of October.
For another who was 15 years old, he began to massage him until he pulled down his pants and began to masturbate him. “I froze until he asked me if I was going to cum for him, then I reacted and shook him off,” she recalled.
The court considers it proven that the defendant took advantage of the admiration that the students had for him – for some he was like a father, for others an idol or a source of inspiration – to “satisfy their sexual desires and attack their sexual freedom.”
The court considers that there was a “situation of superiority” between the accused and the complainants, not only because of the disproportionate age – between 32 and 47 years of difference – but also because he was a person in whom the students “had placed a lot of hope.” Of future”.
In this sense, he considers that he used his influence over the students and their fear of losing him as an adult/reference and his drum classes so that “slowly and progressively he forced them to accept the increasingly extreme sexual practices to which they were subjected.” “subdued.” The court understands that there is no consent if it is not freely given and this was not the case.
The accused, who throughout the investigation phase had denied any type of abuse or sexual relationship, during the trial changed his version and alleged “consensual relations” with four of the five students who brought him to the dock. Of the fifth victim, who was only twelve years old when the abuse began, she denied having had any type of sexual relationship with him.
A change in position that bothers the court, as explained in the ruling. “It is clear to us that (the accused’s statement at trial) is calculated, to the millimeter, to prevent the facts that he has finally acknowledged from having criminal consequences; and that appears to be an overly fortunate coincidence,” it is stated.
During the trial, when questioned by his lawyer Carles Monguilod, the accused stated that he knew that when the events occurred the legislation established the minimum age of sexual consent as 13 years old and that it is now 16.
In the sentence, it is stated that “as if that were not enough, the defendant has not acknowledged any penetration, or fellatio, of minors; surely because he was informed that then, as now, penetrative abuse had a very severe penalty.” superior”.
In this sense, for the court, the accused’s statement “does not deserve any credit; it seems to us to be incomplete, partially untrue and, above all, formulated with a mere exculpatory intention, although the defendant did present it with the same calmness and coldness with which he received the news of his arrest. However, he grants all “credibility and veracity” to the statements of the five complainants.
The court did acquit the accused of three crimes of exhibitionism and sexual provocation as it could not be proven that the images that some of the victims claimed that the accused showed them on various occasions on the computer screen were of a pornographic nature.
The sentence considers him the author of three continuous crimes of sexual abuse with penetration – with sentences of seven years in prison – and two crimes of sexual abuse, one with penetration punishable by four years and one year and six months in prison. They also prohibit him from approaching less than 300 meters from the victims and prevent him from communicating with them for a period of between eight and ten years.
As civil liability, he must pay 15,000 euros to four of the victims and 20,000 to another. Once he has served his prison sentence, the court imposes five years of supervised release.
The sentence, which is not final, can be appealed to the Appeals Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia within a period of ten days.
