Spain: Bilbao diocese priest's conviction for abusing scout monitors at parish summer camps, unappealed and final

Proceedings

1. 2023-07-19 · conviction, final (unappealed)

   Audiencia Provincial de Burgos, Spain. A former parish vicar of the Uribe Kosta grouping in the Diocese of Bilbao was convicted on 19 July 2023 of sexually abusing two female scout troop monitors during summer camps in 2015 and 2016 — one a minor, one an adult. He received fourteen months' imprisonment for the abuse of the minor and an eighteen-month fine for the abuse of the adult, with €4,000 compensation to each victim and the Diocese of Bilbao declared subsidiarily liable. He did not appeal. The diocese had already removed him from public ministry on 4 December 2018 and reported the matter to prosecutors three days later, before the victims' own complaint was filed.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• parish vicar's authority over scout troop monitors under parish-run scouting activities