Candela has decided to tell her story, albeit with an assumed name. He saw it clear last June, when his heart raced when he read in the press that the man who caused him so much fear and anguish at age 15 had been convicted of continued sexual abuse of two girls. Jorge GM confessed to having groped the ass and breasts of two little girls aged 10 and 13 between 2018 and 2020, while working as an administrator in a religious school in Vigo, but he has not gone to prison because he has no prior record. "I thought I could no longer remain silent," says this 29-year-old who treated the pedophile when they shared a basketball court, he as a referee and she as a table official.
His case is one of those that have been uncovered in Galician basketball after Jorge G. M sat on the defendants' bench. This newspaper has collected the stories of four victims who are now of legal age and the story of a family who claims that they unsuccessfully alerted the sports authorities two decades ago to the inappropriate behavior of Jorge GM with the minors. The existence of these testimonies has been brought to the attention of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office and some of those affected are studying to take legal action.
In 2007, Candela was 15 years old and Jorge GM was the adult responsible for taking her home after a game. After getting into the car, instead of starting, he says he pounced on her bringing his hands to her breasts. The minor could not think of anything else to get out of the situation than to tell her that she was in a hurry because she was meeting some friends, she remembers. He backed up and started the vehicle. She came "shaking" to her appointment. “I was not able to manage it and I did not count it. I thought I had done something wrong, that I had caused it, ”he says. She felt "alone and defenseless."
From then on, scared to death, she avoided being alone with him for as long as she could. He spoke with the designator of the refereeing committee that adjudicated the matches so that he would never put them together. He even confided in her what had happened, but asked him not to tell anyone. About four years later, they changed the designator and requested the same of his replacement. This time his fears reached the ears of the now convicted of abuse. One day she found him in the changing room hallway and claims that he cornered her against the wall asking for explanations of why she did not want to referee with him: "I was petrified, but someone appeared and let me go." Shortly after, he had no escape: Jorge GM was promoted to designator and in his first weekend in office, of the 10 games he assigned to Candela, five were sharing the field with him.
More information
New victims of priest Cesáreo Gabaráin, star of mass music, denounce that he abused minors for 20 years
The judge releases the Poblet monk detained for alleged touching of a minor with charges
Raquel, also with an assumed name, was a student at the school where the pedophile worked, a center whose name this newspaper does not reveal to preserve the identity of the victims who are still minors.
He was 14 years old when in 2008 his teacher asked him to go down to the children's classroom to look for some paintings.
The class was apparently empty because the children were at recess.
But when he entered, he saw Jorge GM sitting at the computer.
He greeted him and turned to pick up the waxes.
"He got up, got behind me and began to touch my hips, waist and ass," he says.
It is what he remembers of an episode that he never revealed to anyone and that his brain tried to erase. The "unpleasant" phrase he uttered when she told him she had to go stuck in her mind: "Don't you prefer that we stay here together as brothers?" He went back to his "broken" class. Afterwards, he insisted several times on inviting her to go with him to basketball games, but she always refused. Now 27 years old and convicted of sexual abuse of minors, Raquel relives with anguish how she felt. She did not understand why a man who had known her since she was a child and who even treated her family had done that to her: "There was not so much visibility then with these things, I even thought if I had misinterpreted it ...".
Lucía GL was 15 years old in 2017 and had just played a basketball game refereed by Jorge GM. They entered the dressing room tunnel together and, when they said goodbye, he “grabbed her by the ass”: “I was paralyzed. He told me not to worry, he was old enough to have something with him. He hinted at me to go into his locker room and grabbed my arm. At that moment four companions came out of mine and, when he saw them, he moved away from me ”. Lucia went into her dressing room and locked the door. I was alone and had no cell phone coverage. Then he heard someone trying to break in, but he has no proof that it was him. When she steeled herself to go out, she saw him crossing the court.
Jorge GM, 52, has been a very popular employee in the Galician Basketball Federation. He is an international wheelchair basketball referee and an active member of the Galician referee committee for more than 30 years. He has not only served as a collegiate and administrative officer in the federation but also as a photographer, taking pictures at children's games. In August 2020, when he had already been reported for abuse of the two schoolchildren and fired from the school where he worked, he was awarded at the annual sport gala in Vigo sponsored by the City Council.
The Galician Basketball Federation reports that it fired Jorge GM on May 31, six days after he informed them that he would be tried on June 23 for sexual abuse of minors. The notice that his employee had been kicked out of a school in February 2020 for a case of pedophilia was received by the entity seven months earlier, in October of that same year, through an email from a person who was aware of what happened and that also alerted the Higher Sports Council and the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB). The Advisory Committee for the Prevention, Detection and Action against Sexual Harassment and Abuse opened a file in which Jorge GMHe admitted that he had been called to testify before a judge and that he concluded that the possible disciplinary measures in the case fell on the Galician federation for being a child basketball referee.
The Galician Basketball Federation, however, did not take any measures to temporarily remove Jorge G. M while his judicial situation was clarified and prevent him from being in contact with minors. The president of the entity since 2006, Francisco Marín, justifies the decision in which, in his opinion, the file did not specify "what was the subject of his statement in court." "We have acted with force and prudence," he defends. "In my case I have to be prudent, I cannot accuse, it has to be proven."
The federation has offered the advice of its legal services for possible victims who want to go to court (three have already consulted with them, he reports), but its president does not see it possible for the entity to initiate legal action on its own: “We did not know nothing that had happened. No one ever reported anything, it is an issue that surprised us. " Encourage those affected to go to the Prosecutor's Office.
The family of a girl who played basketball 20 years ago assures, however, that already then verbally alerted the Galician federation of the alarming behavior of the referee with the minors. Jorge GM sent messages to this 13-year-old player on his mobile phone "saying that he wanted to meet her," says the girl's relative, who does not forget the "face of terror" of the child. "I showed the Vigo federation the phone number and also notified the Galician federation," he adds. According to his account, the man now convicted of pedophilia was removed from arbitration for about four months, although he continued to step on the courts taking photos: “I told everyone that over the years everything would work out, but I never thought it would take so long. They [for the federation] knew it and looked the other way ”.The president of the Galician federation assures that he has not found a trace of that supposed sanction in his files or directors of that time who remember the complaint over the telephone messages.
Lucía GL explains that she decided not to report Jorge GM because she could not prove what had happened to him and she knew "the power he had" in the world of basketball.
"I had to put up with him continuing to referee me and I had to continue seeing him behave like the super nice person that everyone likes," he laments about a person who even related to his family.
“When I saw the news [of his conviction] in the school case, I felt very guilty.
What crossed my mind is that he should have denounced, that if he had, he would have a record ”.
"Many victims and many executioners"
The mother of the two schoolchildren she abused reveals with great pain how lonely she has felt in her struggle to put Jorge GM on the bench. When her daughters told her what the man who had been an administrator at the school for more than 20 years did to them, she says that she asked the center's mothers and fathers association to investigate whether there were other similar complaints. The little girls claimed that this man, who had a reputation at school as a "friendly, attentive and affectionate person", caressed them.
Her request was ignored, she maintains, and it was she who acted. He went to speak with the now condemned man to reproach him for his behavior and warn him not to approach the minors again. He recorded the conversation, which later served as evidence in the court case. When she found out that he had once again groped one of the girls, this time putting his hand under her clothes, she reported him to the center's management and told them that her daughters claimed there were more victims.
The concerted school conducted a six-day internal investigation, concluded that the testimonies of the minors had “total credibility” and fired its employee. It was February 2020. “They told me that they considered the problem solved, that the parents had to report it and that they were not going to tell the Xunta about it. I saw it very serious, because this man worked with children. It was like knowing that a terrorist is going to attack and shut up, ”says the mother, who attributes to the rumors that began to spread about the reasons for the dismissal of Jorge GM and the pressure from the families that the center ended up bringing the facts to the attention of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office.
The school management denies having doubted whether or not to go to court. "It was sent immediately to the Public Prosecutor's Office, there was no doubt or they wanted to cover up anything," say school sources, who explain that they did not tell the Xunta what happened because they are not a publicly owned center. The Ministry of Education confirms that it was not alerted and that state regulations do not oblige to do so when it comes to a concerted school.
The outbreak of the pandemic and the change in the prosecutor in charge of the investigation threatened to delay the case, so, to avoid it and advised by people familiar with the ins and outs of the judicial process, the mother of the little girls filed a complaint in the court of guard on May 19, 2020. The Prosecutor's Office requested eight years in prison for Jorge GM but the case did not go to trial at the Provincial Court of Pontevedra. Last June, the defendant confessed the facts and reached an agreement with the public prosecutor that allowed him to reduce the sentence to two years and avoid jail on the condition that he does not commit a crime in the next five years.
The mother of the victims explains that she accepted the pact to avoid her daughters having to testify again in court and also in the presence of their abuser, a requirement that the child protection law approved last April has eliminated. He had achieved what he wanted: that with that criminal record the defendant would not work with children again. “If I got to know all the testimonies of women that come out now, I would have gone to trial and put him in jail. It hurts me to think that I could have done more and, nevertheless, I stayed in the middle because no one ever reported it before, ”he says with anger and sadness. “In this story there are many victims and many executioners. All of society has allowed it ”.
