The Prosecutor’s Office is asking for up to 17 years in prison for a follower of Jehovah’s Witnesses accused of abusing a minor during congregation meetings and threatening him to force him to have sexual relations.
The trial began this Thursday at the Barcelona Court, and is judging events that occurred between November 2018 and December 2019, when the accused, taking advantage of the meetings at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, approached numerous occasions to the minor, who at that time was 14 and 15 years old, and touched his genitals over his clothes against his will.
According to the indictment, this behavior was repeated every time they were both in said room during congregation meetings, about three times a week.
In addition, the accused allegedly contacted the victim through the Snapchat application and asked him to send him photographs and videos of himself masturbating, to which the minor agreed after the accused’s insistence.
Likewise, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the accused asked the victim to have video calls in which they both touched each other, and that these calls were repeated three times a week for a month.
The accused is charged with a continued crime of sexual abuse of minors, for which the Prosecutor’s Office requests six years in prison, and a continued crime of making child pornography on a minor under 16 years of age, for which nine years in prison are requested. and a crime of threats, which adds 2 more years.
Added to the demand, the Prosecutor’s Office requests 10 years of supervised release after serving the prison sentences, in addition to the prohibition of approaching and communicating with the victim, and the disqualification of four years after the prison sentence from any profession or profession in which there is contact with minors.
Finally, the public ministry demands that the accused compensate the victim with 15,000 euros for the moral damages caused.
