A father's costume to abuse students

Colegio La Salle-Bonanova, in Barcelona.Albert Garcia / EL PAÍS

The alleged sexual abuse of two former students of a primary school teacher at La Salle-Bonanova school, in Barcelona, ​​has caused astonishment in the educational community.

And the judicial investigation of the case, whose content EL PAÍS has accessed, reveals that the teacher - free with charges and removed from his duties - used the same strategy to allegedly dominate the two boys who have denounced him.

The statements of the two known victims agree that Víctor P. gained their trust with football as a hook, wooed their mothers to fully immerse himself in their lives, ended up practically becoming "a father" to the boys and, finally, he subjected them to a torment of sexual abuse and assault for two years until, after puberty, he suddenly left them alone.

X. is now 22 years old;

Y is 29. X studied at La Salle-Bonanova;

And, at the Viaró de Sant Cugat school, linked to Opus Dei.

In 2006, Y.'s mother brought her concern to the center because the teacher had “invited her son home”.

Viaró decided to fire him for a disciplinary offense, although he alleges that he was not aware of the abuses at the time - in a personal interview with his tutor, the boy denied them "out of shame" - and that is why he did not go to the police.

X and Y are still afraid.

That is why they ask that they not be identified.

Not even with initials.

Their environment ensures that they did not know each other at all when, each on their own side and for different reasons, decided to step forward and tell their story, for the first time, to the Mossos d'Esquadra.

On October 8, X told police officers that he decided to speak out because he feared that one of his three younger brothers - who the teacher has with his mother - could also be abused.

A few days later, on October 25, Y. assured that he saw Víctor P., who is now 43 years old, enter a soccer field where he went to play with some friends.

He was concerned that, so many years later and despite having been expelled from Viaró, he would continue "working with children."

For now, only X.'s complaint has reached the head of the examining court number 6 of Barcelona, ​​which is investigating Víctor P. for a crime of sexual assault.

The judge gives credibility to the boy's story and, although he did not order the teacher's imprisonment, he did forbid him to participate in activities with children.

The investigated is on sick leave.

La Salle-Bonanova has already communicated (also to the parents of the center) that he will not be reinstated until the judicial investigation is finished.

Y.'s complaint is foreseeable that it will accumulate in that same court in the coming days.

The analysis of the two stories shows the same pattern of behavior.

The oldest events (between 2004 and 2006) are those that affect Y. He was 13 years old when Víctor P., who was a professor of Catalan Language in Viaró, began to approach him.

He did it under the pretext of football, a sport he was a fan of: even then, the teacher was coordinator of the teams of the Club Esportiu La Salle-Bonanova and he offered to join the team.

Soon, Victor P. also became close to his mother, a separated woman and with ten other children.

He does not remember how it all developed, but the fact is that Víctor P. began to stay longer and longer at the family home, babysitting and helping his mother.

"He became like my father," he declared.

Gaining the trust of the minor, he went on to invite him to his home with different excuses, such as watching a movie or riding a bike.

There he forced him to masturbate him, among other alleged abuses that he relates.

Víctor P. also took his student on a trip: they once went to a La Salle residence in La Seu d'Urgell, in the Catalan Pyrenees.

They even traveled to Romania together.

The teacher abused him "every night", always according to the same story.

The complaint states that the accused came to record a video in which they both had sexual relations, and that he had "a book or diary where he liked to write about our relationship."

When he turned 15, and as if by magic, the teacher disguised as a father disappeared from his life.

The distancing was so radical that it alarmed the mother: it was then that she communicated her suspicions to the school and Víctor P. was fired.

He ended up in what was little less than his second home: La Salle-Bonanova, where he had studied.

That same year (2006) he began to grope X., the other victim, at the new school, according to the victim's writing in a six-page letter where he tries to summarize a nightmare of more than two years.

"He always paid me a lot of attention."

But it wasn't until 2010, when he was 12 years old - almost the same age as Y. - that they began to see each other more intensely.

Victor began a relationship with his mother (also separated), with whom he would end up having three children.

They began to live as a family.

The three of them traveled together, to Romania - "I think he was an admirer of Ceaucescu," said the boy - and the teacher settled in his house "like a father."

"He paid us a lot of things," he added.

That year, Victor proposed to X to help him with the team of youngsters. And it was in the coaches' locker room, located in an underground floor, under the field, where the first episode of abuse allegedly occurred. "Jerk off in front of me," he proposed. The boy refused and when they got home (they already lived under the same roof), the man punched him in the face. The physical attacks would occur "practically daily for a couple of years", as would the threats, even with a knife. In the story he makes in the letter, X. remembers how he succumbed to Victor's dominance: "He told me that he would like to be my father."