MáLAGA (SPAIN)
Demócrata [Madrid, Spain]
May 24, 2026
The Court of Málaga is trying a priest this week who the Prosecutor’s Office accuses of alleged sexual abuse of several women with whom he maintained a friendship —four of them have filed a complaint—, after allegedly sedating them and recording those moments on video while they were unconscious. The public prosecution is seeking a total sentence of 72 years in prison for him.
The oral hearing begins this Monday and will continue on the 27th, 28th, and 29th, as indicated by the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia (TSJA). The specific date for the defendant’s interrogation will be set during the course of the hearing, in which the appearance of 16 witnesses is scheduled, including the women who reported the alleged abuse.
Also summoned on the specified dates are about twenty National Police officers, and forensic medical expert reports, as well as police officials proposed by the prosecution —Prosecutor’s Office and four private prosecutions on behalf of the victims— and by the priest’s defense will be presented.
According to the public ministry’s initial brief, the accused had been serving as parish priest in Ardales and Carratraca since August 2017 and as parochial vicar of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación in Álora. Previously, he had spent four years in the Order of the Trinitarian Fathers and then in the Seminary, until he was ordained deacon in June 2016 and priest in June 2017.
In this religious environment and in activities linked to the Church, the priest befriended the four complainants at different times. According to the provisional accusation, which Europa Press has accessed, these ties continued until 2023, when the events now being judged came to light.
The Prosecutor’s Office details in its brief the defendant’s modus operandi, who allegedly took advantage of the “strong” and “intimate” friendship, as well as the “trust” generated, “protected by the accused’s religious status,” which led to the women frequently staying overnight in homes where he resided or that were related to his activities.
The prosecutor maintains that the accused, without them realizing it, administered “an unknown substance –in all probability liquid ecstasy or ‘joy’–“, which caused them to fall into “a deep state of drowsiness”, in which “they were not aware of anything that could happen to them” and with which he avoided “any defense”.
In this way, the public prosecutor indicates, the priest allegedly guaranteed “the execution of what he had previously planned to do” and, with the purpose “of satisfying his sexual desires”, carried out acts of that nature “without there being any consent from the victim at any time, as she was deprived of consciousness”.
Furthermore, these behaviors were allegedly recorded and photographed by the accused, according to the prosecution, which emphasizes the “obvious intention of violating their privacy” when, “without consent”, the women were recorded in situations of their daily lives, in moments of intimacy, from behind or on the beach in a bikini.
For the Prosecutor’s Office, the acts that the accused allegedly committed are visible in those images and also allow the dates on which they allegedly occurred to be narrowed down. In one of the episodes, the woman went to the priest because of the complicated personal situation she was going through and, in all cases, the complainants present psychological and moral damage that has caused them a disorder.
The prosecutor’s brief insists that the victims “were not aware or had knowledge of the events at any time” and for this reason they maintained their relationship of friendship and trust with the accused until, at Christmas 2022-2023, “the accused’s romantic partner” in the parish residence “where they lived together in Melilla”, casually located a hard drive with the recordings.
According to the prosecution, the woman tried to inform the religious authorities of Melilla and Málaga about what she had found, both in person and by email, “without said authorities deigning to listen to her, or collaborate with the Security Forces and Corps, or take any action, beyond transferring the accused to the parishes of El Burgo and Yunquera”.
Given the lack of response, she decided to file a complaint in August 2023 with the National Police, to whom she delivered a copy of the material. From then on, “it was at that moment when all the victims became aware of the situation already described”, indicates the public prosecutor’s office.
For these acts, the Prosecutor’s Office charges the priest with four counts of sexual abuse and four counts of discovery and disclosure of secrets, all of them continuous, in addition to four counts of assault. Along with the 72 years in prison, it requests that he be prohibited from approaching or communicating with the victims for ten years and that he be subjected to a period of supervised release for the same period.
The prosecution also claims a global compensation of 1.2 million euros, so that each of the four women receives 300,000 euros for the psychological sequelae and moral damages suffered. The Prosecutor’s Office considers that the Diocese of Malaga must respond subsidiarily for these amounts.
Regarding this point, the bishop, Jose Antonio Satué, stated last Friday at a press conference that the Bishopric’s lawyers “will argue that the Diocese should not be held liable because it has not facilitated, favored, or looked the other way when the very serious accusations of abuse against the priest became known.”
However, he added that “even if the courts absolve the Diocese of this subsidiary civil liability, and in the event that the priest is proven guilty, the Diocese, advancing on the path initiated by the Church, is willing to also collaborate financially in the reparation of the damages caused.” He also emphasized “collaboration with justice” and his “trust in the courts.”
“The Catholic Church, and of course, also our Diocese of Malaga, has assumed the commitment to compensate victims of abuse by priests, even when the courts do not require it,” stated the bishop, who asked for “forgiveness, in the name of the Church, to all those who in this and other similar situations have not found in the Church the understanding and support they should have received.”