La Salle was aware of the sexual abuse committed by Patxi Ezkiaga to minors and did not take any action
- El País has received 24 testimonies that corroborate the sexual abuse committed by the writer and cleric legorrés. The attacks were carried out on children between 8 and 9 years old and 17 years old. In the 1990s, Ezkiaga's companions were aware of the aggressions, but denounced their actions.
Marisol Zamora was the first woman to report the sexual abuse of the writer and cleric Patxi Ezkiaga. On May 30, the newspaper El País reported on this. Faced with this, the City of Legorreta made public that it “strongly condemned” any type of sexual assault, especially those directed at minors. He showed his support to Marisol Zamora and took three steps: Annul the status of the preferred son of the municipality of Patxi Ezkiaga Lasari, declare henceforth the Patxi Ezkiaga Cultural Center and remove the sculpture made in his honour from the park of Etxezarreta.
Marisol Zamora explained in the interview given to Berria that Ezkiaga exercised his power to attack: “It started when I was eight or nine years old. I don't know exactly when, I was a child. He turned off the light and sat me on his skirts. We were in the dark, in front of my family. It touched me. My legs would put me in between their legs. He told me to sit down, and then what a priest said at home was very strong.”
La Salle College was aware of sexual abuse since the 1990s and did not take any action, according to the testimonies of former students gathered by El País. According to the testimonies, she committed sexual abuse to children between the ages of 8 and 9 and 17.
24 are the testimonies collected by El País about the sexual abuse of Ezkiaga. Izaskun Iparagirre, a former watchman at Isaba camp in La Salle, was the first person to warn the centre of the excesses of the Ezkiaga. “The rest of the brothers in the order did not know how to stay without harming the school.” He has also said that in the summer camps he had a new student every year and that in the evenings he “disappeared between two and three hours” with the student. In reporting on these attitudes, the respondents’ response was simply “to talk to him, to see if he cares for him”. Another victim has reported that sexual abuse had been reported to one of the most trusted teachers and that this “laughs”. Ezkiaga was temporarily sent to Rome and after a few months he returned to the centre. Marisol Zamora says that it is not known that the transfer was caused by the allegations.
The abuses in the center began in 1980, when the school became mixed. The testimonies indicate that the abuses were common in the classroom, in the presence of the other classmates who sat the students and touched their breasts and genitals. “She almost always took girls alone,” says one of the victims. One of the hardest testimonies collected by El País says: “He asked me for the penis to stand upright and sit on it. He said to me: ‘Tenderness will save the world.’ Faced with this, the victim ran out, which had negative consequences. "None of my works was selected, I spoke badly to my colleagues saying it was a waste." Some testimonies affirm that these childhood experiences have not yet been overcome at the present time, and recognize that a victim has attempted suicide.
More reports of sexual abuse
In 2020, Sebastian Grandmontagne, spiritual director of the novices of Irún, took advantage of the power to sexually abuse minors. One student reported that Grandmontagne sexually attacked him and did so “with all his courses.” It was about 120 students. Grandmontagne said he was a spiritual guide and expert in sexual matters, and so he asked questions to the students about sex, according to a testimony. According to El País, he sought the help of a trusted monitor to help him write a letter to colegio.Dice that Grandmontaigne did not come closer to him, but that Ezkiaga continued as usual.
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