Three accused in the ‘Karate’ pederast case sentenced in Las Palmas court today

Fernando Torres Baena, the main suspect in the ‘Karate case’ which has been the biggest case in Spain to date of pederasty, has been sentenced today.

Baena has been convicted in Las Palmas, for 35 offences of sexual abuse and 13 offences of corruption of minors and sentenced to 302 years.

 Baena’s wife, who was a monitor at his academy of martial arts, Maria Jose Gonzalez, has been sentenced to 148 years for 20 offences of sexual abuse.

The sentence was read out in public by the magistrate, Salvador Alba, who also sentenced Ivonne Gonzalez a karate teacher at the same centre to 126 years. The court found all of the accused guilty of various crimes of corruption of minors, and sexual abuse but the fourth accused, monitor, Juan Luis Benitez, was cleared.

The Las Palmas court called this case one  of ‘mega-abuse’ and ‘without precedent in the jurisprudential history of the country’, considering that 50 people had been submitted to ‘indiscriminate sexual relations, without consideration of their age or gender’ for almost 20 years.

The closure of the gymnasium where the offences took place was ordered by the court and all property and possessions seized and confiscated.

The magistrate, Salvador Alba, said that the harm suffered by the victims is ‘difficult or impossible to repair’, because all of them lost their sexual freedom and their virtue. Some have never had a partner or maintained sexual relations again and remain traumatised. He ordered that the three accused pay each of their victims compensation of between €50,000 and €10,000.