The Police advance in the investigation of several complaints of sexual aggression to students of the Highlands El Encinar de Madrid school, in La Moraleja. On March 6, Father Marcelino de Andrés, Chaplain of the College, priest of the last personal secretary of the Founder of the Order and Pedestro in series, Marcial Maciel, was arrested and retired from his position. The researchers try to find evidence that complements the testimonies of the six minors, after the incorporation of a last complaint. Among them, is that of video surveillance cameras, which capture the priest accompanied by girls heading to a blind spot from the patio described by some of the girls as the place where “bad things” occurred.
Researchers have been able to recover images of up to 18 video surveillance cameras of the school, and have focused on those that record the areas described by the complainants. Specifically there are six devices of more interest. The agents have focused on a fragment registered on March 3 in which, on one in the afternoon, an adult is seen that corresponds to the physical description of Father Marcelino accompanied by three minors and all go to a part of the patio, indicated by those affected as the place of the facts, and that is a blind spot of the recordings. There are ten minutes.
In addition, new testimonies contributed by parents who have spoken with their children are added after complaints and investigation. One of the minors described his parents an “experiment” that Father Marcelino had done with several children in which he moved an object, “like a thermometer” until “magical droplets.”
The investigating group has also been able to talk to a mother who took her sons of the school in 2023, shortly after the reported priest arrived at the center, when an article was published in which it was told that a priest very close to Marcial Maciel had started working with minors. At that time, several parents expressed concern to the director of the center, Jesús María Delgado, who was responsible for the decision to continue in his position. “I put my hand in the fire for him,” he told this mother.
Other parents reflect that they came to speak with the deputy director of the school for the same reason and that she told them that the priest had gone through “strict controls” to work with minors and that they assumed the risk that something could happen. of his position by assuming all the responsibility of having maintained De Andrés in his position despite the fears. The director is one of the witnesses called to testify in the coming months within the case instruction process.
Several families report that their daughters have told that they took them to the chapel to give them “the bread of communion.” A mother tells how her daughter tells her that Father Marcelino and that she was “very good” with her, but that how much tries to interrogate her more about possible indications of abuse, the little girl closes in band and starts crying. In the story of the little ones there are many “I do not remember”, very common in the stories of minors and many references to “bad things” that the denounced chaplain was supposedly made.
To obtain some testimonies of the highest quality by minors, in these types of cases one of the Gesell cameras is usually made, special rooms to listen to the suspicious children of having suffered sexual aggressions in which they are interviewed by psychologists who direct a questionnaire with the questions that the parties want to ask and the instructor judge. All legal figures are found on the other side of a mirror, listening to the conversation, so the procedural guarantees are total. This method is used to make only a statement to minors once throughout the process and thus avoid constant revictimization.
The last police report also reveals that Father Marcelino also worked at the Everest School in Madrid, where he was. A father of that center told the Police that they had managed to move the priest after complaining about his proximity to Maciel.
