Seminarian Juan Carlos González Herrera

Colombian. On May 4, 2002 Frecuencia Latina reported that in 1997, González raped a 9-year-old boy at San Martin de Porres School in Tacna. González worked at the school. The boy told his parents, and González was arrested. He was released after the court decided that there was insufficient evidence. Six months later González was again arrested, this time for the rape of a 13-year-old boy at an abandoned property that belonged to the Diocese. The boy and another had been picked up off of the street by the seminarian, who offered them gifts, took them to where he was sleeping and told them both to take off their clothes. González was convicted, and sentenced in January 1999 to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay 6,000 soles to his victims. His sentence was soon changed to partial liberty and González fled the country. He also had paid his victims only 10 soles. The boys’ attorney reportedly stated that the seminarian’s sentence was lenient due to pressure from the Church, in particular by Bishop José Hugo Garaycoa Hawkins, who allegedly said that the attorney “would be excommunicated and barred from entering any Catholic church in Tacna” if he continued with the prosecution.