“The archbishop of Oviedo told me that it was my word against hers.”

In English “They stole my childhood. How could I be making that up?”

V. C., a victim of asturian 36 years, he remained silent until 2015, when they finally felt ready to denounce the priest who had sexually abused her from six to 13 years in Villaviciosa (Asturias, spain). Of his fist and letter wrote a letter to the archbishop of Oviedo, Jesús Sanz Montes, where he was narrating the facts, and the terrible consequences that had resulted. When he met with him in the diocese of asturias, Sanz, with the letter in hand, he told him that nothing could be done. “I said it was my word against his, that he had (a few years before my complaint for other issues and that he was under surveillance,” says she. The bishop is not the “invited” that the complaint about justice, as a brand, since 2010, the protocol against the abuses of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, and also opened an ecclesiastical process against the priest.

“When I walked out of there I was upset so much that I looked at associations of violence against women, I contacted again and finally I reported in 2016”, explained the victim. The cleric, E. S. F., as account, was to subpoena a lawyer for the diocese, and he denied it all. “The Provincial court of Asturias, section 8, rejected the complaint because, according to the judge, the crime had prescribed, and we are calling for,” he explains. Your lawyer says that you are collecting evidence that such a case was reported in its day, and that they are waiting.

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it is Not the first time that the pastor is accused for these crimes. When it happened, the abuse, Mavibet the victim lived with his divorced mother and with the priest in a christian community which he led. Some of the family members discovered the abuses and reported, but the facts could not be tested. “Everything was in a context closed, in a christian community, approved by the bishopric. I remember that sometimes came to see the bishop,” says the young man.

The Archdiocese of Oviedo has confirmed that this case was filed in 1997 and that, after the new complaint, the offences have been prescribed. You have not said anything about if it was done in your day, or recently, an ecclesiastical process. In 2012, the current archbishop of Oviedo decided, without giving any explanation, withdraw from the parish where he was the priest. The neighbors took to the streets with placards to protest against the decision of the diocese. In 2018, the bishop announced his transfer to the pastoral unit of Pola de Siero, about 35 km from Villaviciosa.

When the V. C. began to study Biology, the memories became more intense. “I had a depression and I started going to a psychologist. I told him everything and I improved, but years later I went back to relapse when I went abroad. I went to see a psychologist and encouraged me to do something,” he says. It was then when he wrote to the archbishop. “With 14 years already had a crisis of anxiety. While my cousins were playing, I thought everything that was happening. Robbed Me of the childhood. How can I invent that?”.

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You're angry that the offences are prescribed (in Spain, 15 years after the victim turns 18). It was very complicated, he says, rush to do something. Now that it has done so you do not have sufficient evidence to prove it: “I don't have anything more than what I told the psychologist. I don't have bruises. I don't know who decided that you would have to assimilate the facts in x time. It seems to Me very arbitrary”.

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If you are aware of any case of sexual abuse that has not seen the light, please write to us with your complaint to abusos@elpais.es