The priest Josep Maria AM, arrested on Thursday February 10 by the Mossos d’Esquadra for exhibitionism and for paying minors to agree to engage in sexual practices in his presence, was also investigated by the Catalan police for similar events in 2010when he was in charge of the parish of Montmajor (Berguedà), according to the sources consulted by EL PERIÓDICO. On that occasion, the priest Josep Maria AM was accused of violating the son of a family of Romanian origin, who lived in that population of less than a thousand inhabitants, so that he would agree to his sexual requests.
sources of the bishopric of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, to which the parish of Castelldefels belongs, consulted by this newspaper have refused to clarify whether or not they knew about this past of the priest Josep Maria, nor if that was the reason why he was transferred from Montmajor to Castelldefels. “We cannot talk about anything that could interfere with an ongoing judicial investigation,” they argued.
Josep Maria AM, who is currently 74 years old, came to Parish of Santa Maria de Castelldefels, located in this municipality of Castelldefels, about ten years ago, shortly after the Mossos investigation in Montmajor. In Castelldefels he did not act as parish priest, there is another priest who performs these functions. “Here he did not do mass. He drank, he was sick and he had become a problem,” explained one of the few parishioners who have spoken to this newspaper. From the bishopric they have confirmed that he hardly had any responsibilities.
After his arrest, the diocese of Sant Feliu de Llobregat, through a statement, showed its dismay and sadness at what happened. He added that this bishopric knows and applies the current protocols for the prevention of sexual abuse of minors and also that all the priests of the diocese “who are in contact with minors” have the “negative certificate” of sexual crimes from the Ministry of Justice. He did not clarify, however, if Josep Maria AM, specifically, also had that certificate. The same sources from the bishopric have also confirmed that the suspect had this certificate, which could mean that the Mossos investigation did not end in a criminal conviction.
A family’s complaint
The Mossos d’Esquadra arrested Josep Maria AM a week ago after a family filed a complaint against him. According to the complainants, the priest would have paid two teenagers to convince them to have sex with their respective partners in a hotel and in their presence. One of those involved, also a minor, upon realizing the presence of the priest in the hotel, she refused to accept the proposal and, in addition, explained it to her parents, who went to the Mossos. The Research Unit from the police station Gava (Baix Llobregat) took charge of the investigations and on Thursday, February 10, arrested the priest. According to the sources consulted, the Catalan police arrested him for exhibitionism and for paying minors, of vulnerable origin or at risk of social exclusion, so that they agreed to perform sexual practices. According to the diocese, these are not minors linked to the church nor did anything that the police investigate occurred within the parish compound.
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On Friday, February 11, the agents went to the Santa Maria de Castelldefels rectory and searched Josep Maria AM’s stay. They took his laptop. Both this terminal and your mobile phone will be thoroughly analyzed by the Mossos when the Gavà investigating court that is conducting the investigation agrees to grant the necessary order to empty the content of both devices.
The suspicion of the investigators is that the priest had contacted the two adolescents because not far from the rectory where he resides there is a school frequented by students from families with few economic resources, a feature that the suspect would have taken advantage of. He approached them inviting them to drinks in nearby bars, or buying prepaid phone cards, and ended up proposing that they send him photographs in exchange for money. This relationship would have been twisted to the point, presumably, of paying for the minors to agree to meet him and participate in sexual practices that, apparently, would not include physical contact between the priest and the adolescents.