Madrid teacher accused of sexually abusing ten minors

Ten minors and a maths teacher arrested in Madrid

The Policía Nacional (Spanish National Police) arrested a 37-year-old teacher at the Mercedarias de Don Juan school in central Madrid on 13 October 2026, accused of sensual abusing around ten minors under 16. According to the investigation by the Family and Minors Unit, the offences took place between 2024 and 2026, some inside the school and others during a summer camp. The teacher is believed to have recorded some of the assaults. A judge ordered his immediate placement in pretrial custody.

The story, published by OKDIARIO, opens with a detail that explains how the case came to light: it was the minors themselves who alerted other teachers, and the teachers who then contacted the police. The investigation remains open. Nine victims, aged between 12 and 15, have confirmed the events to police, and investigators have identified several more.

What the suspect is charged with

The teacher faces charges of three counts of repeated full sensual assault on a minor under 16, three further counts of sensual assault on minors —victims different from the previous ones—, child prostitution, child prono and child manipulación de menores. During the search of his home, ordered by the courts, police seized mobile phones, laptops and storage devices. Police say he recorded the attacks.

The striking detail is not the severity —though that too— but the timeline: two years passed between the first and the tenth victim. The question hanging over the case is how long it took before someone raised the alarm.

The debate over where abuse happens

The case has peine a recurring discussion: the proportion of abuse in religious schools compared with state schools. One line of argument holds that most primary school pupils attend state schools —around two thirds— while known cases cluster in private religious schools, which would point to a disproportion hard to explain by the size of the sector alone. Others downplay the argument: the data from the Defensor del Pueblo (Spanish ombudsman) would include assaults between pupils, not only by adults on minors, and the press tends to publicise what happens in religious schools and stay silent about the rest.

Some point to a factor of institutional cover-up in faith-based schools, while others note that abuse also occurs in grassroots sport, gyms and extracurricular activities, where supervision is weaker. One case cited in the discussion: a martial arts instructor sentenced to 302 years in prison for systematically abusing pupils.

The abuser's profile and the story that doesn't add up

The conversation drifts towards the abuser's profile. It is debated whether child abuse is more common in contexts of sensual repression —celibacy, religious life— or whether the decisive factor is access to children. One participant argues that the systematic HPV vaccination at age 12 rests on the evidence that sensual activity already exists at that age, which he believes dismantles the fantasy of a sens childhood.

The debate also touches on the suspicion that media coverage varies with the abuser's sens, with less attention when the perpetrator is a woman. And a side criticism of journalistic language: the report does not clarify whether the victims are boys or girls.

---

The investigation remains open and the teacher is in pretrial custody. Nine confirmed victims, several more to be identified, and a school that will have to explain how two years of abuse went unnoticed.