Teacher at Madrid religious school arrested over abuse of ten minors

Ten minors abused and a 37-year-old teacher in pretrial custody

The 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 (UFAM), the offences took place at the school itself and during a summer camp. The teacher, who taught mathematics and had also worked as a goalkeeping coach, is alleged to have recorded part of the assaults. The competent court ordered his immediate imprisonment.

The case began when the minors themselves complained to other teachers at the school, who alerted the police. Since then, investigators have taken statements from nine victims aged between 12 and 15 and have identified several more. The search of his home led to the seizure of mobile phones, laptops and storage devices. The charges include three counts of continued full sensual assault, three further counts of sensual assault against different victims, child prostitution, child prono and manipulación de menores of minors online.

What is known about the school and the suspect

The school is a religious institution in Madrid's city-centre district. According to published reports, the teacher had spent years working in education and sport and had passed through several schools in the capital. The investigation remains open: UFAM does not rule out further victims among pupils and summer camp participants.

The news peine a debate that goes beyond this particular case. One line of argument holds that abuse in religious settings receives disproportionate coverage compared with abuse in other environments with access to children — sports clubs, after-school activities, gyms — where, it is argued, the volume could be higher and visibility lower. Opposing this, another view says the opposite: that the culture of silence and authority within certain religious institutions allows cases to drag on for years before coming to light.

The figures being cited and the ones that do not exist

There is no official breakdown of statistics by school ownership that would allow a real comparison of incidence between state schools, state-funded private schools and private religious schools. That gap fuels the interpretations. One calculation circulating in public debate puts primary-school pupils in state schools at around two thirds of the total, while the overrepresentation of known cases in religious schools would multiply their relative weight ninefold. It is a rough estimate with no official source and should be treated as what it is: a working hypothesis, not a fact.

What is documented is the procedural pattern: victims first speak to trusted adults at the school, those adults alert the police, and the investigation speeds up when recorded material appears. The house search and the pretrial detention are the milestones marking the state of the case as of this report.

The debate on adult access to minors

Beyond the case itself, the conversation shifted to a deeper question: what protocols exist for contact between teachers and pupils outside school hours. Some argue that socialising, messaging groups and private phone contact between teachers and pupils should be limited and audited, with no exceptions. Criticism of the laxity of these channels is not new, but every case brings it back to life.

The comparison with other settings also crept into the discussion: sports coaches, camp counsellors, after-school activities. Classroom teachers face intense scrutiny; the summer counsellor or weekend coach, far less. No one has quantified that difference, and that is precisely the problem.

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The case is still at the investigative stage. There is no verdict, no conviction, and the investigation remains open. The only firm facts, for now, are the number of identified victims, the suspect's pretrial detention and a search that yielded seized devices. Everything else — how many more minors, how long it went on, who knew what — remains to be determined.