Spain's Supreme Court confirms jail for pedophile priest
Spain's Supreme Court has confirmed a jail sentence of more than 17 years for a priest who sexually abused two boys, one of whose parents consented.
The news comes as a trickle of accusations of sexual abuse against priests in schools and seminaries over the past few years has started to erode the wall of silence surrounding abuse in Catholic Spain.
In its verdict made public Wedneday, the Supreme Court confirmed a November 2017 sentence against Jose Donoso Fernandez, a former priest in the southwestern village of Mengabril, whom a provincial court sent to prison for 17 years and seven months.
It also confirmed a jail term of four years for the parents of one of the underage boys for committing sexual abuse "via omission, as they knew about and consented to the priest's sexual relations with their son."
The court said Donoso housed the Romanian couple and their children in 2013 and 2014 in the priest's parish house.
"The family depended almost completely on the defendant Jose Donoso Fernandez, who took care of nearly all their expenses, food, clothes, the stay and schooling, and the bureaucratic paperwork they had to do," the court said.
The other victim was a 12-year-old altar boy.
READ ALSO: Spanish victims of Catholic priests speak out over sex abuse
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The news comes as a trickle of accusations of sexual abuse against priests in schools and seminaries over the past few years has started to erode the wall of silence surrounding abuse in Catholic Spain.
In its verdict made public Wedneday, the Supreme Court confirmed a November 2017 sentence against Jose Donoso Fernandez, a former priest in the southwestern village of Mengabril, whom a provincial court sent to prison for 17 years and seven months.
It also confirmed a jail term of four years for the parents of one of the underage boys for committing sexual abuse "via omission, as they knew about and consented to the priest's sexual relations with their son."
The court said Donoso housed the Romanian couple and their children in 2013 and 2014 in the priest's parish house.
"The family depended almost completely on the defendant Jose Donoso Fernandez, who took care of nearly all their expenses, food, clothes, the stay and schooling, and the bureaucratic paperwork they had to do," the court said.
The other victim was a 12-year-old altar boy.
READ ALSO: Spanish victims of Catholic priests speak out over sex abuse
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