Avelino Palomino, the fake pediatrician who traveled across half of Catalonia and ended up murdered in Valencia.
He was accused of professional intrusion after almost 10 months working in the country and two years in Andalusia.
Barcelona / GironaAt 63 years old, he joined the Montilivi Primary Care Centre in Girona as a resident. His presence surprised the staff at the center. It's rare, if ever, to see a doctor undergoing paid training on the verge of retirement. Medical interns (MIRs) are young. The man, who had submitted all the required documentation, spent three and a half months commuting by train to Montilivi from Barcelona, until he suddenly disappeared. Andrés Avelino Palomino Barrios led a hectic life. A roller coaster ride that culminated in his murder in Valencia in 2012. He was previously accused of serial murders in Perpignan, of helping illegal immigrants enter France, and of being a fake doctor who toured Primary Care Centres and hospitals throughout Spain without the relevant training.
In reality, according to the investigation carried out by a court in Pozoblanco, Avelino Palomino actually held a medical degree. What he didn't have, however, was the approved MIR (Spanish Medical Internship), which prevented him, for example, from working as a pediatrician in healthcare centers, as he had done for years. Throughout his life, he falsified documentation (both his age and qualifications) to be able to practice in various centers within the public healthcare system. Palomino was registered as a doctor in Peru, his country of origin—he claimed to have served as a doctor in the Peruvian army—also in France and Spain, and was at least registered in Murcia and Girona, after having his Peruvian qualifications recognized through the Ministry of Education.
In Catalonia, "El Chino," as he was known, hopped from center to center, working more than 310 days if you add up all the jobs he held between 2005 and 2009: 25 days as a pediatrician at the Just Oliveres Primary Care Center in L'Hospitalet; 36 days in Montornés del Vallés; one day as a family doctor in Balaguer; 16 days in Mollet; 5 days at Viladecans Hospital; 12 days in Arbúcies; 34 days at the Ernest Lluch Primary Care Hospital in Figueres; one month at the Berga regional hospital; and 46 days at the Seu d'Urgell Hospital. Despite working in the provinces of Barcelona and Lleida, he never registered with the medical associations in these two regions.
During these four years, he was doing the same thing in other places in Spain: Almería, Córdoba, Huelva... Precisely as had happened in Catalonia, his strange behavior with patients and the complaints of some users—he prescribed medications to minors who were allergic and caused adverse reactions—led to a second warning of professional intrusion. The case was eventually dismissed because the Pozoblanco court concluded that his medical degree was recognized. However, he was not a pediatrician because he lacked the specialization required to have passed the MIR (Mediterranean Resident Medical Intervention). In total, Palomino worked 662 days for the Andalusian health system.
According to several French media outlets, the same thing had happened in France, where he lived for a long time before coming to Spain and where he had worked in nearly twenty medical centers. His peculiar way of practicing his profession, his lack of knowledge about the doses he should administer, and the fact that he always prescribed the same thing raised suspicions about whether he was really a doctor or an imposter. He ended up being reported and expelled.
Serial Murders
In 1995, several murders began to occur near Perpignan station. In December 1997, one of the bodies was found mutilated. Palomino lived next to the place where the bodies were found. His strange behavior and the fact that he was found to have scalpels at home—he had stolen medical supplies from several hospitals—put him under police scrutiny. A few weeks later, he was arrested as the alleged perpetrator of a series of serial murders, and spent eight months in prison. Traces of blood were also found on his clothing, which, when analyzed, turned out to be from an animal: he claimed he wanted to become a butcher. He was eventually released, but the shadow of guilt haunted him for years.
In 2012, Palomino met a boy on the train and promised him a job at a restaurant. "El Chino" He told him he ran a restaurant and was offering him a job. The boy traveled to Valencia, where Palomino lived, and for two days they walked up and down without the restaurant anywhere in sight. They slept in the same room, and on the second night, Chino He attempted to sexually assault him. The young man responded aggressively, suffocating his attacker, and quickly fled the scene. This is the story heard by the jury that judged the case.
They also felt how the defense attorney referred to Avelino Palomino's life "based on deception," who, furthermore, had been "charged with murder" and "acts of barbarism" in France, a crime that had remained unsolved. Fifteen years after the Perpignan deaths, the shadow of suspicion still fell on the Peruvian. Ultimately, the jury ended up sentencing the boy to four years in prison, a low sentence because they found him guilty of unintentional homicide. Years after this trial, the French police arrested the real killer of three of the Perpignan victims. El Chino He wasn't guilty.
Avelino Palomino's life was always marked by the shadow of suspicion. Was he really a doctor? Did he falsify his documentation to practice? The Pozoblanco courts and the Ministry of Education confirmed that he was a doctor, but his conduct with patients indicated otherwise, and despite never having passed the MIR (Member of the Municipality of Madrid) exam, he worked fraudulently for years throughout Spain.
