Eduard París, former member of the Castellers de Barcelona, ??admitted to sexually abusing nine minors from his gang under the pretext of giving them massages. The defendant reached a plea agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, admitted the facts and accepted a sentence of ten and a half years in prison, which, however, he will not serve, since each of the nine crimes separately does not exceed the two years in prison. During the hearing, which lasted only half an hour and was held yesterday at the Audiencia de Barcelona, ??four of the nine victims did not confirm their allegations and, once the hearing was over, they asked the accused to ask them sorry, which the accused has not done. The Prosecutor’s Office requested a sentence of 39 years in prison for him, but has agreed to reduce it to ten and a half years. The public ministry has taken into account that it consigned 54,000 euros to the court to compensate the victims, at the rate of 6,000 euros for each one and with the ban on communicating with them for a period of five years. The defendant’s defense will request that the sentence be suspended during the execution of the sentence – and therefore, that he does not go to prison – and the Prosecutor’s Office will not oppose it.
The case generated a great commotion in the Casteller world because of the relationship of trust that exists between the members of the gang and that on this occasion was violated. Eduard París was a veteran member of the group, to which he had belonged for more than 20 years and had even become gang leader and president. At the time of his arrest, in November 2020, he was a “technician for children who are members of the gang”. He is accused of sexually assaulting nine underage girls between 2014 and 2019, aged between 7 and 17, whom he invited to his home after a performance or rehearsal under the pretext that he knew how to massage , then he took the opportunity to touch them in the intimate areas or to rub their genitals with the victims. “In the same way, he recommended that they stay in panties and a T-shirt, and told them to take off their pants and bras so that they would be more comfortable, and thus be able to see and touch their anatomy more easily,” explains the prosecutor in his writing . On one occasion, the accused went so far as to masturbate next to the minors after having touched them under the pretext of a massage while the victims pretended to be asleep.
During the hearing there were moments of tension with those affected. The defendant stood behind a screen to avoid visual confrontation and revictimization of the victims, although on leaving the room they ran into their attacker. The Castellers de Barcelona announced that, when the sentence is final, they will proceed with the final expulsion of the gang from Paris.