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The defendant confessed the crimes during the trial, held in the Provincial Court of Malaga in November 2021. Migue Fernandez
Lengthy prison sentence review for former Malaga football coach who abused children rejected

Lengthy prison sentence review for former Malaga football coach who abused children rejected

During the court case, the accused confessed to 33 offences including sexual assault, indecent exposure and child pornography

Irene Quirante

Malaga

Tuesday, 2 May 2023, 16:20

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Courts have refused to review the 77-year prison sentence of a youth football trainer from Malaga who abused children.

The High Court of Justice of Andalucía (TSJA) refused to look at the sentence imposed on the former Malaga football coach after he pleaded guilty to abusing and harassing 30 players, all minors.

In total, he confessed to 33 sexual offences. Among them were sexual assault with minors, indecent exposure and child pornography.

The coach, as previously reported by SUR, admitted that he selected minors he knew from football and then searched for them on Instagram, hiding his identity through false profiles in which he used the name of a young girl.

He would hold conversations with the victims to gain their trust, after which he would send them photos of a naked girl and encourage them to send nude photographs of themselves in return. The defendant even sent intimate photos of some of his victims to other boys, football players and teammates, for not having complied with his orders.

The coach also admitted that more than half a dozen boys were sexually assaulted. In the case of one of the players, he abused him from the age of 10 to 14.

Although he was sentenced to 77 years, the effective sentence was set at 18 years' imprisonment, as this was three times the longest sentence imposed, in this case for the most serious offence, punishable by six years' imprisonment.

As a result of the new Law of Integral Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, better known as 'only yes is yes', his defence requested the sentence be reviewed, which Malaga's Provincial Court had previously already rejected.

He argued the maximum sentence was based on the crime of sexual assault which meant that he should have been sentenced to between four and six years in prison, having been sentenced to six.

With the new rule, the prison sentence that would be imposed would also range between four and six years, the magistrate argued, rejecting the revision.

The former coach's lawyer lodged an appeal with the TSJA to have the minimum sentence of four years imposed for the most serious offence, which would leave the maximum sentence at 12 years. But the Andalusian High Court opposed it "head-on", considering that "the claim is unfeasible".

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