The former priest of Can Picafort was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing a doll.

PalmThe First Section of the Provincial Court of Palma has sentenced the former parish priest of Can Picafort, Pere Barceló, to two years and one day in prison for sexually abusing a minor who was between six and seven years old at the time. According to the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB), the judges also issued a restraining order of 500 meters and a five-and-a-half-year ban on contact with the victim. In addition, the Palma Court ordered him to pay €15,000 in compensation and ordered the Diocese of Mallorca to be held subsidiarily liable in the event of the former rector's insolvency.

The court found that there was sufficient evidence to overturn the presumption of innocence and that the victim's statement was completely credible. "The facts declared proven – which occurred between 2007 and 2008 – leave no room for doubt as to their unequivocally sexual nature, as this is evident from the very act of touching the minor under her underwear" that the accused performed on her during a catechism class, the sentence states.

There is also no doubt about the "lack of consent" of the victim due to her young age, given that she was between six and seven years old at the time, nor about the "position of superiority" in which the former parish priest of Can Picafort, a town located in the Mallorcan municipality of Santa Margalida, found himself.

"The priest took advantage of the fact that there was a piece of wood in front of the table that prevented the rest of the children from seeing what was happening and the dimensions of the room so that the children were far from the aforementioned table and thus could not realize what was happening," the judges report to determine that the minor "where the events occurred.

The court, however, has not found sufficient evidence to prove that the touching by the former rector included penetration. The sentence is not final and can be appealed before the Civil and Criminal Chamber of the TSJIB.

The trial

The trial for these events, which occurred between 2007 and 2008 in the Asunción de María parish, took place at the end of last June. The prosecution sought a ten-year sentence for Barceló, which was ultimately greatly reduced by applying the mitigating circumstance of undue delays. It also sought compensation of 40,000 euros and a 20-year restraining order.

During the hearing, the victim claimed that while the accused was taking attendance of the rest of her classmates, she was sitting on his knees, a moment he took advantage of to repeatedly touch her under her shirt, pants, and underwear.

The former rector of Can Picafort, for his part, denied the accusations and repeatedly asserted that in 15 years, not a single child had approached his table, describing part of the complainant's story as "the fabrication of the century."

The second conviction for abuse

Barceló was sentenced in 2016 to six years in prison for continued sexual assault. He confessed to having repeatedly sexually abused a ten-year-old choir girl between 1997 and 1998.

The priest had been assigned to his ministry as parish priest of the Church of the Assumption of Mary in June 1996. In the first trial, he acknowledged that he had begun a relationship with the victim in early 1997 when she attended catechism classes regularly. The young woman recounted her experience before the court through tears and, visibly shaken, recalled how she was raped more than ten times while his mouth was covered and she was held tightly so that she could not move or escape.

It wasn't until November 27, 2012, that the young woman, now of legal age, reported the incident to the Civil Guard in Santa Margalida: "I let him go because I couldn't take it anymore," she explained. At the trial, the defendant claimed to be "completely remorseful" and accepted the six-year prison sentence, compared to the 42 years the prosecution had initially requested for him. During the trial, the defendant stated that "one must be a little better" and wished "the best for her and her family." In March 2011, the Bishopric of Mallorca provisionally suspended Barceló after learning of the case.

The Church, which compensated the victim before the trial, initiated a parallel canonical procedure that concluded before the criminal proceedings and resulted in the maximum canonical penalty: expulsion from the clerical state.