Sentenced to life imprisonment in Peru a priest who abused a girl for five years

The priest Maurilio Villafana Morales

A new case of pedophilia has muddied the Peruvian Catholic Church.

Maurilio Paulino Villafana Morales, 53, a parish priest in the districts of Mato and Huata, in the province of Huaylas, in the Ancash region, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of violation of sexual freedom.

His victim is a girl who was abused for five years, between 2014 and 2019. Her ordeal began when she was nine years old and was a member of her parish choir.

The parents found out a long time later that the priest in whom they had placed their faith, the one who gave them the wafer and read the Word of God every Sunday, had abused their daughter.

Dismayed, they went to court.

After four years, justice has sided with him.

The evidence was sufficient for the Supraprovincial Collegiate Criminal Court of Huaraz.

In addition to sentencing him to the maximum custodial sentence, Maurilio Villafana Morales must pay a fine of just over $1,600 as civil reparation.

“I took her by the shoulders, her back and chest.

She told him that he was good.

The representative of God, that nothing bad was going to happen to him, who was in the church.

She would start taking off his clothes and say 'you want me'.

She wanted to scream and she couldn't, the priest kissed her and took off her clothes.

The following week the same thing happened.

The parish priest told him: "You have returned because you wanted more," says the statement of the girl's mother, whose identity has not been revealed.

Little her was about to take her life.

“I saved her twice, she wanted to hang herself.

The last one took 60 pills and she was hospitalized for more than two months, ”she told a television channel.

Villafana Morales has been disqualified from teaching or administrative work in public or private basic or higher education institutions.

The Prosecutor's Office presumes that there would be more victims and more involved.

Those involved have been identified as Graciela Guerrero Rosas, Grober Quito Milla and Alina Meres Morel, adults who were in charge of the children's choir.

Now, the competent agencies must capture the priest and intern him in the Víctor Pérez Liendo prison in the city of Huaraz to enforce his sentence.

This has been determined by the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE).

According to the Ombudsman's Office, in 2022 there were 8,100 cases of rape of minors in Peru.

An average of 22 cases per day.

In 2023, the figures have increased: only between January and February, 2,764 cases have been reported, of which 92% have been directed towards girls and adolescents.