Colombia: priest convicted of abusing displaced children in his care — and the Supreme Court's landmark civil ruling
Request a correction or replyDisposition and response
Material that narrows or disputes the record
Appellate history
2015
Landmark civil liability of the Church affirmed.
Record class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
parish priest of Líbano, Tolima
Organization
No organization assigned
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Children of a displaced family delivered into the parish's protection — the priest's custody was itself the Church's charity, and the Supreme Court's civil ruling hangs institutional responsibility on exactly that authority.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2009-01-01 · criminal conviction; landmark civil ruling against the Church
Colombian criminal court (2009); Corte Suprema de Justicia, Sala Civil (2015). Luis Enrique Duque Valencia, parish priest of Líbano, was sentenced in 2009 to 18 years for abusing two children, aged seven and eight, of a displaced family entrusted to his care. In 2015 the Corte Suprema de Justicia ordered the Church itself to pay roughly COP 800 million — Colombia's first civil condemnation of the Church for a priest's abuse, reasoning that the institution cannot detach itself from a priest 'subject to its authority'.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- custody of children of a displaced family entrusted to the parish's care
Cited record
Sources
- national newspaper court reporting conviction and civil ruling report El Tiempo archive: the Duque case and the Supreme Court civil ruling.
National paper of record.
- national newspaper court reporting civil ruling report El Espectador: coverage of the civil condemnation of the Church.
Independent national corroboration.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-16398924 Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: conviction-and-civil-ruling-report. SHA-256 8013e47702ebb8d37867e44ffa9df062924b0c5f08473e005a78885903068b33
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
- Source and tier basis
- https://elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/condena-iglesia-caso-de-pederastia-una-ofensa-monsenor-articulo-591742 Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: civil-ruling-report. SHA-256 169bf990f3cb5de4dba9eb46d19b33c83c94ed45e8fdac26df3e8becdd2855d8
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)