Glenn Wickman
A YOUTH football team coach in Valencia who was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of child abuse has been found to be in possession of 50,000 files of paedophiliac material – including many of his own creation.
The accused, a retired soldier, coached boys and teenagers aged 10 to 15 in an undisclosed town in the Horta area surrounding Valencia city.
He was initially reported to the police in December 2019 by his wife, who by chance discovered six USB pen drives hidden inside her husband’s rucksack that were found to contain a large number of images and videos of explicit sexual acts with children.
She reported being suspicious for some time after discovering children’s underwear among her husband’s possessions.
This week the forensic department in charge of analysing the material has revealed that among the more than 50,000 files are several made by the suspect himself, in which he can clearly be seen engaging in sexual acts with minors.
In addition, the children featured in his videos have also been identified, and include the accused’s godson and an underage cousin who were allegedly raped and filmed by the suspect while they were asleep and/or drugged.
He is also accused of repeatedly abusing and filming the three young sons of a friend of his during 2014, when the mother left her children – aged five, seven and eight at the time – with him to look after.
However, following the advice of a psychologist who examined the young victims, the mother has refrained from pressing charges as the abuse took place while the children were asleep and they have no knowledge of what happened, and in the interests of the victim’s wellbeing it was decided not to put them through a potentially traumatic trial.
Either way, the forensic team maintains that the videos are so clear and explicit that the testimony of the young victims is not needed in order to sentence the accused.
The suspect was arrested and charged with three counts of continued sexual abuse against victims aged under 16 years old, five counts of creation of pornographic material involving children, and one of possession of child porn.
For all the above, he is facing up to 50 years in prison, although following his arrest in 2019 the judge in charge of the case decided against remanding the accused in custody and set him free awaiting trial.
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