Every piece of information that is disclosed is more gruesome. And València observes with astonishment everything that is becoming known about the case. This is the murder of the canon emeritus of the Cathedral of Valencia, Alfonso López Benito, who was found dead on Tuesday, January 23, at his home on Avellanas Street. The National Police arrested a man as the alleged perpetrator of the crime. The detainee had in his possession the priest’s mobile phone that he allegedly took after killing him.
The data released by the local press, and not denied, indicate that the deceased had sexual relations with needy young people whom he brought to his home in exchange for money. One of these is a man with a recognized disability whom he attracted from another autonomy to maintain intimate relationships in his home. He even paid for transportation so that he could travel to Valencia. According to what has been published, there were several young people who visited the canon’s home and had sex with him.
It was the building’s doorman who found the body of Alfonso López Benito, 85, after which the police device was activated. An acquaintance of the dead canon approached the scene to tell the agents that someone was using the priest’s cell phone to impersonate him when he was already dead.
The facts are so serious that even the Archbishopric of Valencia has had to rule on this issue. In a statement, the institution points out that it “warned” the canon two years ago after residents of the same building, owned by the Archdiocese, presented “verbal complaints” about the people who came to it. But he adds that these complaints “in no case alluded to natural events that are narrated” in the media and has maintained that since then “no type of complaint has ever been received again.”
He also explains that “if what was published is true, we express the deep pain that the narrated events cause us, which are manifestly contrary to the commitments of priestly life, freely assumed at the time of ordination, and we express our regret for the scandal, the confusion and pain that they cause to everyone, very directly to the faithful, and especially to the members of the presbytery.
Regarding the judicial procedure opened in relation to the death of the canon, the Archbishopric has explained that it proposed appearing in the case as a private accusation, although it assures that the investigating court rejected it when it understood that the appearance corresponds “only to the direct family”, reason for which he has finally “given up” on his intention.
Furthermore, the Archdiocese has added that it considers other reasons such as “confidence in justice, sufficiently protected by the prosecutor’s office”, as well as that the facts of the investigation “narrated by the media refer to acts for which responsibility belongs personally to the deceased”.
The head of the Court of Instruction 3 of Valencia, acting as incident guard, decreed last weekend the entry into provisional detention, communicated and without bail for the detainee, who is being investigated in an open case, initially and without prejudice to further qualification, for a crime of homicide and another of fraud.
Following this decision, the judge on duty agreed to recuse himself from the proceedings in favor of Investigative Court 19, which will be competent to continue the investigation. The Prosecutor’s Office and the then popular prosecution, carried out by the Archbishopric, had requested provisional detention for the arrested person due to the seriousness of the events, the evidence in the proceedings and the risk of flight given his irregular situation.
