SPAIN
Expatica

A Spanish court dropped charges against 11 out of 12 suspects in the country’s biggest ever clerical sex abuse scandal because the statute of limitations had expired, court papers showed Monday.

The nine priests and two laymen had been charged with “sexual abuse with penetration, exhibitionism, and concealment of evidence” involving an underage altar boy.

But the court in the southern city of Granada, where the alleged abuse took place, ruled their accuser, now aged 25, should have brought a case within three years of turning 18.

One priest, however, is still charged with the more serious offence of “continued sexual abuse, with the introduction of a bodily member anally and attempt to introduce the penis”, according to the ruling dated January 26.

If convicted, the clergyman faces a jail sentence of up to 10 years.