The National Police has arrested this week a caregiver of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) after the complaint filed by the Directorate of the Educational Center for the alleged commission of sexual aggressions against several minors. “The investigation is open,” a police spokeswoman, who has asked for “prudence” to be a “delicate issue involving minors” told this newspaper. The spokeswoman has not been able to specify the age of the detainee or if she has a history for these or other crimes. Nor has he pointed out the number of affected children or the ages, but the worker, who has already been fired, was fundamentally responsible for monitoring children from 3 to 6 years in common areas as courtyards and dining rooms.
The news has been advanced a few hours ago by him. The director of the center, David Arranz, explained to the EFE agency that the denounced worker was immediately separated from his functions and fired from the school.
It was last Monday, May 12 when another employee of the center witnessed the alleged criminal conduct and made it known to the school management. The center addressed the National Police “immediately”, which transferred the facts to the family and wife of the Alcalá de Henares police station.
The director has indicated that a single complaint was filed and in reference to a small number of cases. The College also activated the protocol that governs these cases established by the Community of Madrid, so it contacted the educational inspection. In turn, in a “preventive and immediate” way, the employment contract of the denounced was terminated.
As detailed by the director of the center, the caregiver had in order the preceptive certificate that sexual crimes did not consist of him. He was not a teacher, so he has never entered the classrooms, but also fundamentally cared for common areas of courtyards and dining rooms and, above all, he was in charge of students of the second cycle of early childhood education (from 3 to 6 years). The school points to the local newspaper that had been working there for a little over a year, since it was hired in April 2024 for a substitution. After finishing a first contract, the College again hired in September, for which the worker contributed for the second time the negative record certificate.
Once the Police confirmed to school the detention last Thursday of the caregiver, the center spread a statement to families. “Our fundamental objective is the protection of minors and their families, and the protection of their intimacy,” emphasizes the director, who states that the center is trying to collaborate as much as possible with the police and show “transparency” before the educational community.
Alborada is a concerted center integrated in the Arenales educational network, which groups about thirty Catholic schools. It is not formally attached to any ecclesial institution, although some of their centers do have agreements with religious congregations or with the Opus Dei.
This case is the second in just a few months in the Community of Madrid. Last March, a priest was arrested after accumulating five complaints of sexual abuse in the moral. Also in the Community of Madrid, in January 2024 the National Police of Aluche, accused of sexually assaulting two students of the educational center.
The sexual acts against a child under 16 are punished with prison sentences of two to six years, but if the abuse implies violation, the penalty can increase from eight to 12 years and, when violence or intimidation is used or if the victim is especially vulnerable, between 12 and 15 years.
