Five months ago, the Civil Guard contacted a former student of the Virgen de Europa school in Madrid who had been waiting for that moment for a long time.
An agent told her that around 200 photos, some of private parts, had appeared in a folder with her name in the material seized at the home of her former teacher and co-owner of the center, Antonio Maestu.
She was not surprised because she had been following information about the investigation of this teacher and businessman accused of pedophilia for more than a year.
If new victims appeared, she had a better chance than many others, as she says in an interview with this newspaper on condition that her anonymity is respected: “I had favorite girls and in my grade it was my turn.”
He speaks after having had a bad time.
This Thursday morning she, two other recorded former students and Maestu had to testify in the courts of Móstoles, a municipality southwest of Madrid.
The former teacher waited to be called early, alone and taciturn.
A few steps away, his lawyer was chatting casually with the prosecution's colleagues, but she was nowhere to be seen with the former students.
One was abroad and spoke via video conference.
The other two had gotten the judge to organize everything so that they wouldn't meet the accused's eyes.
At the end of the session, the young woman who agrees to be interviewed says that she remembers that Maestu had laid eyes on her when she was 10 years old.
He used to call her into her office and lock the door.
“There was a continuous parade of girls through her office, which was not a classroom, but an office, because he was one of the owners of the school,” she says to emphasize the idea that this was not just any teacher.
The stalking continued over time.
The images that have appeared now are from 17 years ago, when she was 12.
Maestu taught arts class and was always walking around with a video camera in his hand.
Every year he organized an extracurricular activity that consisted of the recording of a short film.
Now that it is known that she hid cameras to record naked and semi-naked students, the pieces of the puzzle fit together, says this former student.
Now, some things that seemed strange make sense: “I made the students dress up, put on lipstick, and put on heels…”.
The Civil Guard has examined the audiovisual material it found at Maestu's home for more than a year.
In addition to these three former students, seven girls who were in fifth grade in 2022 have been identified, but part of the seized information has been lost forever because it was found on hard drives that were drilled.
Legal sources with knowledge of the case believe that Judge Susana González, head of the investigative court number five of Móstoles, is about to conclude the investigation and will soon send Maestu to trial.
“Protected” by the director
The former student does not want to go into more detail about what appears in the images or about her treatment with Maestu.
She explains that everything is being judged and will be known in due time from her.
She does have a message that she wants to convey.
She is outraged that Enrique Maestu, director of the school and brother of the investigated person, has not resigned.
“I think Enrique protected his brother.
It's hard to think that she didn't know when she had been doing this for 17 years with such strange behavior.
Even if I didn't know it, I'm sorry, but it was his obligation to supervise that extracurricular activity.”
Enrique Maestu upon leaving the Móstoles courts, in July of last year.
JUAN BARBOSA
Enrique Maestu did resign, however, from his position at the head of the main association of private schools, the Association of Private and Independent Schools (CICAE), after learning that his brother was being investigated.
Last year, he declined his right to testify when he was summoned to court.
Other school officials then claimed that they did not know what the accused was doing.
The young woman is also very upset with the school for the treatment she has received since it became known that she was a possible victim.
She says that the Civil Guard informed the school in October that images of her had appeared in Antonio Maestu's files.
However, neither Enrique nor her parents' association have contacted her or her family.
“We have not felt supported.
On the contrary.
She has questioned us and we have been accused of seeking the closure of the school.”
This school is located in Boadilla del Monte, northwest of Madrid, and is seen by many of those who have passed through there “like a big family.”
The alumni remain in close contact over the years and say that long-term couples often emerge from these circles.
It is a center with about 1,500 students that was founded in 1961 by Enrique and Antonio's parents.
Her mother, Fifí, received the Gold Medal for Work in 2011 and the Boadilla City Council named a gazebo and a park after her.
But not all are good words.
The most critical call the atmosphere in the school and its alumni circles a “sect.”
They denounce that this intimidating climate has favored the director and the other three brothers who have remained on school property.
“The idea they want to impose is that the school is the victim of a witch hunt,” says this young woman, who insists on the idea that the director should resign from his position: “It is what would have happened in any other school.”
“I think Antonio is sick, but the director has no excuse,” he adds.
“This is a private school where parents leave significant money for years to guarantee the safety of their children.”
Write to the author at
fpeinado@elpais.es
or
fernandopeinado@protonmail.com
Subscribe here
to our daily newsletter about Madrid.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_