The victim of the pedophilia ring suffered more abuse than officially documented while under the control of the DGAIA.

BarcelonaThe 13-year-old girl who was the victim of a massive pedophilia ring operating from Barcelona while under the supervision of the former Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) "very possibly" suffered more abuse than has been documented. This is the conclusion of the investigating judge following the completion of the judicial investigation, which has been divided into three parts due to the scale of the case. There is also another victim, a 14-year-old boy. The first two parts were already before the Barcelona Provincial Court awaiting trial, and in the first The prosecution has requested 107 years in prison for the leader of the schemeNow, the investigating judge is prosecuting Teófilo, the 45-year-old electrician, for the third time. He already faces up to 107 years in prison for producing child pornography, primarily through the assault of a vulnerable minor. The second person charged in this third part of the investigation is a man from Madrid, currently imprisoned in Aranjuez, who allegedly participated in at least one of the assaults. The Barcelona Court of Instruction Number 7 has taken statements from all parties involved and analyzed various electronic devices, mainly belonging to Teófilo. The investigation concludes that between 2020 and 2021, this defendant contacted several men to arrange meetings at his apartment in the Raval neighborhood so they could have sex with the minor. The investigating judge notes that the girl was below the age of consent, and therefore it is "irrelevant whether or not the minor consented to sexual relations," and these are in any case sexual assaults." The judge cites video footage showing him assaulting the minor, sometimes with other men, or recording the assaults. Twenty-one video files were found from just one assault in which both Teófilo and the defendant participated, which took place in Madrid. "It is possible that more sexual abuse of the minor occurred." In fact, this conclusion is drawn from conversations the suspects had among themselves, recovered during the investigation, in which they "clearly discuss having or having had sexual relations with the minor." However, there is no photographic evidence of these assaults, and the minor does not describe them. Only the main suspect has been identified, and all of this has led the investigating judge to close the investigation against nine of the suspects.

Around thirty people involved and a 14-year-old victim

In fact, the scope of the case is much greater than what will ultimately be tried. The police investigation into this pedophilia ring The operation resulted in 16 arrests, and there were still 14 other men pending identification.but who appeared in the images of the attacks. As the ARA already explained, during the investigation it has only been possible to confirm the identity of two of the thirty men involved, compared to the difficulties in identifying them in the images, who almost never show their faces.

Among the recovered messages is also an Instagram chat conversation that shows how the two defendants spoke with a 14-year-old boy to arrange a meeting and told him they were already waiting for him. The boy testified that both of them assaulted him that day. The minor explained that he used to go to Teófilo's apartment to smoke marijuana and that when he trusted him, Teófilo offered him money—between three and four times—in exchange for oral sex. Therefore, in addition to sexual abuse, the defendant is also charged with inducing a minor into prostitution.

This case triggered a crisis in the former DGAIA, which added to the alleged irregularities in the payment of benefits to young people formerly under guardianshipThe Generalitat admitted that a "profound transformation" was necessary after it became public that the pedophilia case involved a minor under the guardianship of the administration, and that this led to the creation of the new Directorate General for the Protection and Care of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA).