by The Marist Insurance Company has been recorded in the Barcelona hearing the 120,000 euros fixings as compensation for the four victims who took to trial Joaquin Benitez, former physical education teacher from the Sants-Les Corts school from Barcelona sentenced to 21 years and nine months in prison for sexual abuse. His cases are the only ones that could be tried because the crimes were not statute-barred. The deposit of this amount in an account has been made without waiting for the Supreme Court to resolve the appeals presented by the insurer and the accused, who remains at large.
The legal sources consulted by this newspaper maintain that it is usual for compensation to be deposited when the sentence is final and not, as in this case, when the resolution of appeals is still pending. Given Generali’s action, the victims have already requested the Barcelona Court to collect the amounts that correspond to each of them (60,000, 40,000 and 10,000 for two).
In the ruling handed down in April 2019 by Section 21 of the Court and, subsequently, confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), the magistrates consider that the Champagnat Foundation, of the Marists, is subsidiary civilly liable, being the owner of the school where the events occurred and the accused being an employee of the same. However, the payment of the 120,000 euros must be paid by his insurer, Generali, as the direct civil liability.
reckless conduct
In addition to the prison sentence, Benítez was sentenced to 13 years and eight months in prison. disqualification from practicing the teaching profession and the prohibition of approaching the victims. According to the sentence, he sexually abused the four students, taking advantage of his superiority as a teacher, which allowed him to “commit the crime more easily” between 2006 and 2009. The judges alleged that the “production” has not been attributed to the Marists. voluntary damage”, but rather “reckless conduct” due to the “lack of control” of the actions of his former teacher. In his opinion, this situation “comes squarely” into the content of the policy contracted by the religious congregation with Generali.
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The court ruling specified that despite the fact that complaints had accumulated for previous sexual abuse against Benítez, which were filed due to the statute of limitations of the crimes or acts that, according to the professor, the leadership of the congregation covered up, “at most” The court could reach “suspicions”, but “not certainty” that the management of the center and the institution had “concrete knowledge” of the four sexual crimes courts.
Sentence Benítez is charged with four crimes of sexual abuse. In the most serious case, the former teacher performed fellatio on a student, whom he also asked to penetrate him. In the other three cases, the defendant performed fellatio on one child and touched two others. He always used the same pattern: with the excuse of treating an injury or discomfort, he would convince the students to come to his office, make them stretch on the stretcher, and abuse them. The judges validated the victims’ statements not only for the “absence of incredibility,” but also for their “plausibility” and “persistence.”
