A primary school teacher at the Brains International School María Lombillo, in the Arturo Soria area of Madrid, was arrested two weeks ago in an operation by the National Police against child pornography, sources close to the case have revealed to elDiario.es. .
The arrest of the teacher has provoked a second line of investigation, related to the complaints of at least two families who had transferred to the center a few weeks before an alleged inappropriate behavior of the teacher with their daughters, between seven and eight years old.
The detainee is a British citizen, in his thirties, who was placed two weeks ago at the disposal of the investigating court number 48 in Madrid, on guard duty. The magistrate ordered the release of the investigated with precautionary measures, including the prohibition to leave the country, periodic appearances in court and removal of minors, add legal sources.
The Police came to the detainee in a search operation for child pornography on the network and in the search of his home they found a folder with pedophile material in which photographs of girls also appeared, ‘stolen’ made inside the school.
Independently of the police investigation and without knowledge of it, at the beginning of June two mothers had transferred to the director the testimony of their daughters, which seemed to describe inappropriate behavior by the teacher, such as touching during reading sessions in which one of the students read standing next to the teacher’s table.
While the rest of the children worked at their desks, the teacher listened to the affected girls read and stroked their backs, bellies or butts, according to what the girls told their parents. On other occasions, the teacher sat the students on his knee while they read. The person under investigation has been a tutor for that second grade class during this course that has just ended and the past.
The mothers have shared with the rest of the families that the director told them that she would inform Management, that is, the owners of the center, and that she would immediately activate the protocol, although the teacher continued to teach normally during the remaining three weeks. course, according to the families. Before the parents’ complaints arose, the teacher had already announced that he would leave his job at the end of the year because he was moving out of town.
In fact, the person under investigation sent the parents an email on July 1, from his corporate address at the center, cordially saying goodbye to them and announcing that he was starting a new professional project, other than teaching and outside of Madrid.
The agents are taking statements from the parents and those responsible for the school. For its part, the guard court, which took a statement from the detainee and issued the precautionary measures, has recused itself in favor of 49, which is instructing the investigation for child pornography. The fathers and mothers of the students have appeared as a private accusation against the teacher in the case that follows the court of instruction number 49, as has the center, although the magistrate has not yet made a decision on the matter.
“We activate the internal protocols”
elDiario.es has contacted the owners of Brains on María Lombillo street, in Arturo Soria, who have declined to make any statements. Instead they have sent a statement to this medium in which their legal department ensures that since the center had “knowledge of the events that occurred, our internal protocols established for these purposes were activated.”
Likewise, the legal department of Colegio Brains states: “The provisions of our Criminal Compliance system for the prevention of the commission of criminal offenses that, as an educational center, we have established, in compliance with art. 31 bis of the Penal Code”, referring to the article that determines the responsibilities of legal persons.
On July 18, 27 fathers and mothers of 13 of the 18 children who make up the class of which the person under investigation was the tutor sent a letter to the center to convey their “absolute rejection of the management carried out by the center’s management María Lombillo and by the heads of Colegio Brains SL”.
In the letter, the 13 families demand “the immediate dismissal” of the director of the center. Regarding the center they criticize the “lack of adoption of preventive and organizational measures (‘in vigilando’) aimed at the early detection of possible criminal or inappropriate behavior committed by its workers and subordinates.” They assure that there has been a “zero lack of adoption of agile, effective and transparent measures of reaction, information, insurance, avoidance and repair of the damage in the face of the confirmation and knowledge of the commission of such serious acts”.
The school, for its part, says in the statement sent to this medium that its appearance in the case as a private prosecution responds to its intention to “go to the last consequences in the fight to defend the interests of our students.” “Our top priority,” they add in reference to children.
Brains SL assures that it has made available to the parents of the center “a contact channel created expressly for this case, in addition to the accompaniment of the entire teaching community”.
Parents ask for the “immediate dismissal” of the director
The signatory parents of the aforementioned letter, which are equivalent to more than 70% of the students of the class of which the investigated one has been a tutor, disagree and denounce the “absolute lack of transparency and information of the center and its lack of accompaniment and sensitivity with the problem suffered by the victims”.
In this sense, “two unfortunate circumstances” stand out. In the first place, that they found out about the teacher’s arrest through a call from the Police, despite the fact that the agents had his numbers because the school had given them to them without telling them anything about it.
Likewise, the letter sent to the center conveys its indignation because the parents have “been forced to self-manage the detection of criminal findings in the relationship” of their children with the detained teacher, “without the center having participated, instructed or provided assistance to the respect despite its inherent obligations as an educational center and one of collaboration with the justice system”.
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