The priest arrested for sexual assaults reported that his partner in Melilla had stolen computer material from him

The 34-year-old priest accused of four rapes under chemical submission and five crimes against privacy denounced his partner days before being arrested by the National Police. At the beginning of September, Francisco JC went to the police station of the municipality where he lived, Vélez-Málaga, to report that a woman with whom he had had a relationship in Melilla months before had stolen computer equipment and 3,000 euros from his home. euros in cash. For the investigators it was nothing more than confirmation that the hard drive on which the sexual assaults were found was her property. They ended up arresting him just a few days later, in the early hours of September 10 to 11, just hours after offering Sunday mass in the town of El Burgo, one of the towns he was assigned to in the province of Malaga. The Diocese of Malaga has deleted all information related to this priest that was on its website.

The priest, who is the son of a Poor Clare nun, was ordained in June 2017. It is just the first year in which there are images of sexual content that he himself took – both photographs and videos – while carrying out “all kinds of sexual practices” with their victims, according to police sources, who emphasize that there are also files from 2018 and 2019, but do not rule out that there are before and after those dates since they still have to analyze many images.

With those already examined, they managed to identify five women, all of them from the priest’s circle of friends as a result of different meetings and religious camps. He traveled with them and other friends and took the opportunity to sedate them with a strong substance that left them completely unconscious at the mercy of the priest. When the agents summoned them to the police station “they did not have the slightest idea of ​​what had happened to them,” according to sources in the case. They only remembered the dates and places where they had gone on a trip as a group of friends, but not the violations they had suffered. They were shocked.

Francisco JC kept those images on a hard drive, the same one found by the woman with whom he had a relationship in Melilla, where he had been stationed by the Diocese of Malaga since 2021. Last January, the girl was found, according to reports. reported the newspaper Sur, heartbroken, in the church of Santa María Micaela, where her then romantic partner, who was also assigned to the penitentiary center of the Autonomous City, worked.

It was she then who communicated to those responsible for the Melilla vicariate what was happening between them and, also, the existence of images of sexual content with the priest as the protagonist. Then the church encouraged her to report, but the only measure the institution took was to transfer the now detained man to Malaga, where months later it assigned him the parishes of El Burgo and Yunquera, near two other towns where a couple of people had been assigned. years before, Ardales and Carratraca.

In the month of July the woman went to the church again, which encouraged her again to report to the National Police. She then she did. Days later, in August, he passed a copy of the folders with photos and videos on the hard drive to the members of the Family and Care Unit for Women (UFAM) in Melilla, just when Francisco JC was spending his days at the Day. Youth World Cup in Lisbon.

In September the priest also went to the police station to report that she had stolen computer equipment and 3,000 euros in cash. He confirmed that he had maintained a relationship with her and hinted that the woman had committed these robberies out of spite. Not a week later the man was arrested by the National Police in the house where he lived in Vélez-Málaga. After being brought to justice, he was sent to prison accused of four crimes of sexual assault under chemical submission and five other crimes against privacy.

UFAM investigators continue analyzing the computer material seized at the detainee’s home and do not rule out that there may be more victims who join the women from Málaga, Madrid and Córdoba who have been identified in the videos, organized in folders with the initials of every one of them. Meanwhile, the Diocese of Malaga – on which Melilla depends and which has deleted all publications related to the detained priest from its website – maintains that in January it only learned of the existing relationship with the woman (“it is a situation not in accordance with what the Church prescribes”, according to religious sources) and that it was not until months later when they learned of the existence of the images. However, he did not open any type of investigation and his only measure was to transfer him to Malaga lands “due to health problems.”

He was assigned the towns of Yunquera and El Burgo, in the Sierra de las Nieves region, whose neighbors showed this Monday their indignation at what happened to a priest whom few knew because he had only been practicing in their parishes for a couple of months. It was not until yesterday, when the National Police announced the arrest of the priest, that the Bishopric of Malaga withdrew his ministerial licenses. “This is the first step in a possible canonical process,” concluded sources from the diocese, which yesterday issued a statement in which they said they felt “deeply the damage that this situation implies” and that they were “moved by the evil inflicted.” They also condemned “deeply and forcefully” “any type of humiliation or abuse of women.”

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