A school sports coach has been disqualified from carrying out any activity involving children after admitting to a court in Malaga that he sexually abused ... a 15-year-old pupil. According to the ruling, the defendant had known the girl since she was seven, when he began coaching her in extracurricular sports activities.
The provincial court has sentenced him to two years in prison, although he will not have to serve the sentence in custody. The suspension is conditional on his taking part in sex education programmes and committing no further offences over the next four years.
The offences admitted by the coach date back to 2022, when the girl was under 16, the minimum age for sexual consent in Spain. The defendant, who was 37 at the time, had a sexual relationship with the pupil, whom he had known since she was seven through his work as her hockey and indoor football coach.
The relationship lasted from June to September, during which time they engaged in sexual activity, despite the coach being fully aware of the teenager's age. According to the ruling, the encounters usually took place on Saturdays at the defendant's home. On one occasion, they met during a local festival in another municipality, where he took the girl away to a rural area.
Legally invalid consent
After the defendant admitted the facts and reached a plea agreement, the public prosecutor and the private prosecution classified the offences as a continuing sexual abuse offence against a child under 16, stressing that the victim's consent was legally invalid.
The coach will avoid going to prison, because he meets the conditions for a suspended sentence: he has no previous convictions for offences of the same nature, the sentence does not exceed two years and he has paid the compensation awarded to the victim.
However, the suspension will be revoked if he commits another offence within the next four years or fails to complete the compulsory sex education courses.