Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Vigo area, Galicia, Spain · 2016

Spain: prominent Galician exorcist priest's conviction for sexually assaulting a parishioner in the sacristy is confirmed on appeal

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Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

2016

Audiencia Provincial de Pontevedra confirmed the conviction on appeal.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Catholic priest of San Campio parish; Spain's most prominent practising exorcist

Organization

No organization assigned

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The victim was a parishioner assaulted inside the church sacristy by the parish's own priest, who invoked religious framing ('God wants you to be well') in the act itself — spiritual authority operating as both the access mechanism and the language of the assault.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Exorcism or deliverance
Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2016-09-17 · conviction, confirmed on appeal

Spain, criminal court (first instance) and Audiencia Provincial de Pontevedra (appeal). José Luis Portela, a 74-year-old priest and Galicia's best-known exorcist, was convicted of sexually assaulting a 42-year-old parishioner in the sacristy of his church in August 2014, where he embraced her, put his hands under her clothing, and told her 'God wants you to be well' while kissing her. He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment (suspended as a first-time offender with a sub-two-year term) and ordered to pay €4,000 compensation. The Audiencia Provincial de Pontevedra confirmed the conviction on appeal. The church expelled him from his parish of 47 years and from exorcism duties following the conviction.

Documented coercion mechanisms

exorcist/spiritual-authority framing ('God wants you to be well') used during the assault; pastoral access to a parishioner within the church sacristy

Cited record

Sources

national newspaper verdict and sentencing report El Español: El principal exorcista de España, condenado por abuso sexual.: Report of the conviction, the sacristy assault, the 'God wants you to be well' quote, and the sentence.
national newspaper final disposition report El Español: El principal exorcista de España será expulsado de la Iglesia por abusos sexuales.: Report confirming the Audiencia Provincial de Pontevedra upheld the conviction on appeal and the church's expulsion of Portela from ministry and exorcism duties.

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.elespanol.com/reportajes/grandes-historias/20160917/156234891_0.html Corpus classification: national-newspaper; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 dc5fcd017a73e5f76b54aaab387fe9e31e843e2dd41208b02576598b88435ab4
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.elespanol.com/reportajes/20170510/214979123_0.html Corpus classification: national-newspaper; evidentiary role: final-disposition-report. SHA-256 75d973b42eb6e3a8b69aa9ef0cf872d3c54024dfe7816931fa894440eaffcbe6
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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