The first priest expelled from the Church in Spain for a case of pedophilia, Pere Barceló, former rector of Can Picafort (Mallorca) faces a new trial for abusing another minor between 2008 and 2010, according to Diario de Mallorca. Barceló has already been sentenced to six years in prison and it has been half a year since he was released from prison after serving his sentence in full. In parallel, an ecclesiastical court permanently removed him from the priesthood after verifying that he repeatedly raped a girl between 1997 and 1998, when he was 10 and 11 years old.
Barceló is accused of similar acts as a result of a complaint that was filed in 2018, when the ex-parrator was already in prison. When the events occurred, in 2008, the girl was 7 years old and she endured continuous sexual abuse until she was 9 years old. After carrying out an exhaustive investigation, the investigating judge of the case considers that there are proven indications to open a trial.
The complaint that has just been investigated relates events very similar to those of the first, which earned her a prison sentence and her departure from the Church. The young woman was subjected to touching by the priest for years, with continued sexual abuse until the girl stopped going to the parish. The priest was questioned while he was in jail for the previous conviction and denied all the facts, but the judge gives credibility to the young woman’s allegations.
The case that cost her jail was initially uncovered as a result of a complaint from a catechist who witnessed the abuse of the minor, but the young woman took a few years to admit the facts for fear that no one would believe her due to the authority and ascendancy that the priest had in the parish and before his parents. She also denounced threats and coercion from the priest so that she would not say anything.
He finally filed the complaint in 2012 and the man was sentenced to six years in prison for a continued crime of sexual assault, something that the parish priest himself acknowledged during the trial. The priest also has a restraining order from the victim that is still in force after being released from jail.
The judge has already issued the indictment and once the case is closed it will be sent to the Provincial Court of Palma, where he was already tried for the previous case. Initially, the Prosecutor’s Office requested 42 years in prison, but an agreement was finally reached for him to serve the 6 years that he has been in prison.
