The High Court of Justice of Madrid has upheld an 11-year prison sentence for Wooby Oreste J.O., the former parish priest of San Pedro Regalado in Vallecas, for repeatedly sexually assaulting a parishioner. The woman had recently arrived from Colombia and went to the church seeking help to obtain food and support herself.
The court rejected the priest’s claim that several Cáritas volunteers had conspired against him and accepted the victim’s account. According to the ruling, he offered her use of a property next to his home in the parish in exchange for cleaning it. He later entered her accommodation several times with his keys and threatened her to prevent her from reporting the assaults.
The sentence, first imposed by Madrid’s Provincial Court, also includes ten years of supervised release, a restraining order protecting the victim and €40,000 in compensation. The judges said her account remained consistent during the proceedings and was supported by testimony from other parishioners and Cáritas volunteers.
The case formed part of wider allegations by migrant women in vulnerable circumstances who said the priest had made sexual advances or approaches while using his position in the parish. The court found that some of those incidents were not criminal because he withdrew or stopped when the women asked him to.
The Archdiocese removed Oreste from his Vallecas post in 2024, after the judicial investigation was under way. The High Court’s decision is not yet final. His defence has announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, and the sentence has not been enforced; he has not entered prison.
Sources: elDiario.es.