[ad_1]
“I learned to cry alone, to scream in silence, to bear guilt.” * David lives immersed in a nightmare since 2010, when the priest William Eduardo Alfonso Gómez He broke into his privacy taking advantage of the fact that he was only a 13-year-old boy.
(In context: They sent a priest who abused a child to jail in Bogotá)
The infamy occurred in the San Martín de Tours parish, located in the neighborhood with the same name (South San Cristobal), near the sector known as Guacamayas. “I remember that when it all began I was in the seventh grade and my mother was a catechist at that parish.”
The young man said that a year before the abuse began, his mother had lost her job, and that it was at that moment that Gomez offered him what to do, he presented himself as the savior of that moment of anguish. He told him that he could take care of the chores and general cleaning of the rectory.
This residence was right next to the parish where the priest officiated mass. “When I was leaving my school I would go to the rectory to help my mother.” She was everything in this boy’s life, and every time his studies allowed him to go to work by his side. They were going through a difficult economic situation.
(Also: The story of the conviction of a priest for abusing a 12-year-old girl)
The strange thing was that Gómez began to impose trades on him in the most remote places of that house. “For example, I used to clean objects in the library, books or china from his personal room.”
Already in 2010 the attitude of the parish priest changed even more. The morbid comments began, but also attitudes that for the young man were not correct. “He would change in front of me, stay in boxer briefs and show me the tattoos he had.”
He would change in front of me, he would stay in boxers and show me the tattoos he had
The priest used fake profiles to post his aberrations.
This religious boasted of them. He had inscriptions on his skin from other languages and the image of a blue butterfly on his back. Taking off her outfit was like a totally different being, sometimes like something out of a horror movie. “As time passed, he asked me questions about my underwear or how much I was wearing and he told me that he would be afraid to see me naked.” But with the young age that David was, he could not distinguish the man’s intentions.
(Also: Who is the priest suspended by the Vatican after allegations of abuse)
All this frightened the young man, especially since that attitude remained in the religious for about five months. “Then came the first abuse. It happened in the room of the rectory. He tricked me by telling me to come up. After that, and despite the fact that he told me to go to mass, I went home at once. I didn’t want to be there. David was confused, he was afraid, he didn’t know what to do.
But the outrage didn’t stop there. Gomez used to have prayer activities in different houses in the north of Bogotá. In fact, he had a select group of people whom he allowed to accompany him. “I used to assist him with my mother, but then he would tell her to let me go alone.”
(You may be interested: Peak and ID are raised in Bogotá and there will be business hours)
So it was that another day, arriving at the priest’s house, at around three in the morning, he told the young man to stay with him and to watch television in his room. “I wanted to go to another room, but he insisted on me. Then I began to fall asleep and when I least realized it he was on top of me “. Gómez did not care about the victim’s pain, he always manipulated him by telling him that he wanted that to happen in that gloomy room.
The priest’s room was on the second floor of the priest’s house. The bed was wooden, aged and dark, there were two bedside tables, a wall-to-wall wardrobe, a table and a television. The image of that place was embedded in the mind of this young man because That was when everything went from touching to violent carnal access. “I spent most of the night in the bathroom, I was in pain, I was bleeding,” David recalled.
I endured the pain of the wounds. I was forced to destroy evidence, to take a bath every time he decided to use me in a grotesque, strong and abusive way
William Eduardo Alfonso Gómez was sent to La Modelo prison in Bogotá.
That evening, scared, he fell asleep on the cold floor and only until six in the morning did he go home terrified. “When I arrived I put on my uniform and went to study. He was just a scared child. “
For three years, David was forced by Gomez to give in to his aberrations. Always with the same excuse, always in the same way, always telling him to crumple the covers on his bed so that the young man’s mother would not notice the abuse, always manipulating. “I tried to tell my mother everything, but the priest told me that thanks to him she had a job and that he was the only person who helped us. He also bought me clothes and invited us to eat ”.
(We recommend reading: Who is Mateo Reyes, a key witness in the case of Ana María Castro?)
Gómez played with the young man’s mind, telling him that a body could only support things it wanted, that rape was a concept that did not exist and that he had to get into his head that he was enjoying what was happening. “I was going crazy, I endured the pain of the wounds. I was forced to destroy any evidence, to throw away the papers with which he cleaned me in the toilet, to bathe every time he decided to use me in a grotesque, strong and abusive way ”.
David says that those moments, he would simply run out of breath, he stopped living, he became a simple object of no value.
Some time later the parish priest was transferred to the San Benito Abad church in the San Carlos neighborhood. “But he managed to go to my house. Once I was incapacitated because my wisdom teeth had been removed and he visited me, spoke with my mother and late at night, again, the abuse began and in my own home.
Other times the abuser followed him to school, it was as if he did not want to lose track of him. He always managed to find out what the young student was doing.
By 2014, mother and son continued to work for Gómez and the outrage did not stop. David continued to be victimized day after day. At 19 his life was destroyed.
(Read: Facade hunters: this is the ‘brick diversity’ in Bogotá)
He says that he had started smoking marijuana as a mechanism to try to forget everything that had happened. His family no longer saw him as the wise child but as the rebellious teenager with problems. “At that time I told some cousins and they told me to report it. Not my mother, because she was still working for the priest and was even undergoing treatment with him. He is a psychologist ”.
Years of abuse destroyed David’s relationship with his mother. “He broke all communication ties between us and at the same time said that he was the only one who could help us.” David wanted to escape the abuse many times, even once he tried to run away, but the priest hit him on the back, gave him many fists, other times he made him record what was happening.
On one occasion, the parish priest gave the young man a cell phone, but his strategy was to borrow it to contact children or to snoop into their conversations. “Of course, thanks to that I was able to enter his Facebook and start collecting evidence. I didn’t know when I was going to be brave enough to report it, but I thought that one day I would be able to overcome my fears. “
This is how he realized that he was using Facebook and Instagram accounts with fake profiles. “I used other names to upload explicit content. All that I kept, but I was afraid to report him and that he would alter my version. Many times I told him no more but again the fists were on my back ”.
David’s story and many evidence provided by lawyers Miguel Darío Hormaza and Claribel Cubillos, from Coopsoliserv, as well as investigators from the Attorney General’s Office They managed to have Gómez charged with the crimes of abusive sexual act, abusive carnal access with a minor under 14 years of age and aggravated violent sexual act. All with circumstances of greater punishment due to the position of the priest.
I tried to tell him everything
to my mother, but the priest told me that thanks to him, she had a job and that he was the only person who helped us
The complaint was filed on February 17, 2020 by David and the capture of Gómez was achieved on February 14, 2021 in the San Benito neighborhood. The legalization of the capture was on February 15 and that same day the priest accepted the charges.
(Of interest: I have been looking for my daughter 25 years ago: the strange abductions that terrified Suba)
On February 16, the 12th court of guarantees imposed an assurance measure and ordered that the father be taken to the La Modelo prison in Bogotá. Only the conviction by the judge of knowledge is pending.
‘Talk’ was a word denied for years to this young man. “Today I can say that it has been the most liberating decision of my life. William Eduardo Alfonso Gómez ruined my childhood, my purposes, my illusions. It ended my innocence. Now I know that what happened was not my fault; he, as a priest, had power over me ”. It is believed that just as David could have more victims, more lives destroyed by the abuses of this religious. They are in your search. “I tell them, please, report it, that’s why I tell my story, I want to save other lives from abuse.”
CAROL MALAVER
SUB-EDITOR BOGOTÁ SECTION
Write to us at [email protected]
* If you have been a victim of this crime, write to us at [email protected]
