The coach of the Vacarisses Figure Skating Club (Barcelona) accused of abusing seven minors, between the ages of 12 and 15, whom he trained in 2019, has pleaded guilty and has accepted a 14-year prison sentence, although He will not enter prison when the sentence is suspended in an extraordinary way.
In section 2 of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, ??the Prosecutor’s Office and the coach’s defense have reached an agreement that reduces the request for an initial sentence of 42 years in prison that the public prosecutor requested to a sentence of 14 years , two for each of the seven abuses.
The man has acknowledged being guilty of having abused seven minors in 2019, to whom he touched areas such as the chest or buttocks with the excuse of making posture corrections during the exercises, and to whom he also made various comments of sexual character and on his physique.
When the events occurred, the minors were between 12 and 15 years old, and they also alleged that the man regularly rubbed his genitals against them and entered the locker room without warning when they were changing.
On another occasion, and with the excuse of giving them a massage to improve their skating performance, he urged two of the minors to stay in their underwear and took the opportunity to touch their buttocks.
The public ministry has changed its accusation, in which it no longer sees seven crimes of continued sexual abuse, but simply abuse. Therefore, each of the seven crimes has been punished with two years in prison, instead of the initial six years.
At the request of the defense, the court has issued an extraordinary suspension of the sentence and its replacement by two years and eleven months of community work, since the crimes attributed to him do not exceed two years in prison and that it is about an unusual offender.
As a condition for the suspension of his entry into prison, the convicted person may not commit a crime again in a period of three years and will have to follow a sexual education course, as well as pay 500 euros in compensation to each of the victims, which which he had already done before the trial.
In addition to this, he will be on probation for 5 years and disqualified from doing any work that involves contact with minors for 3 years.
