The Provincial Court of Malaga has sentenced the priest from the Diocese of Malaga known as “Father Fran” to 52 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting four women between 2014 and 2018. The ruling, made public this Wednesday, finds him guilty of three continued offences of sexual abuse with penetration and a fourth continued offence of sexual abuse, all aggravated by abuse of trust, as well as four continued offences of discovery and disclosure of secrets.
In addition to the prison sentences, the court imposes restraining orders against the victims, a period of supervised release once the sentence has been served, and payment of €403,129 in compensation for the moral damages and psychological after-effects suffered by the four women.
The judicial decision adds an element of particular relevance to the Diocese of Malaga: it holds the Bishopric vicariously liable for the payment of the compensation, considering that the facts cannot be separated from the convicted man’s priestly status or from the exercise of his ministry.
Before the trial began, the Bishop of Malaga, Mons. José Antonio Satué, publicly maintained that the Diocese should not assume vicarious civil liability in this case.
“Our lawyers are going to argue that the Diocese of Malaga should not be held liable,” he stated last May, asserting that the Bishopric “has neither encouraged nor condoned nor looked the other way when these extremely serious accusations came to light.”
The Provincial Court has now rejected that argument.
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