A priest was convicted of abuse and will have to pay 13 million pesos to the victim

The justice of Mendoza found the priest Alberto Daniel Sardá guilty of abuse and harassment, condemning him together with the Archbishopric of Mendoza to pay the sum of 13 million pesos in compensation to a woman who was a victim when she was a minor in the Mendoza department of San Martín. The verdict, issued by the Third Court of Associated Management of Mendoza under the magistracy of María Angélica Gamboa, was received with impact throughout the region. The court’s decision, dated February 28, 2024, states that Sardá and the Archbishopric have a period of ten days to pay compensation to the plaintiff, whose name is being withheld for legal reasons. The victim’s lawyer, Carlos Lombardi, explained that this conviction in civil court represents a “compensation for the damages” derived from the gender violence perpetrated by the priest and the Archbishopric of Mendoza.In addition, he clarified that, in “the criminal jurisdiction, the priest was dismissed not because he was innocent, but because of the statute of limitations of the criminal action that is applied restrictively but that indicates that the State cannot continue to prosecute crimes by the passage of time. It’s not because the person is innocent or the facts weren’t committed.” The court file revealed that the sexual abuse occurred when the victim was a minor and Sardá was a priest in the Immaculate Conception parish, located in the district of Palmira, in the Mendoza town of San Martín.

Original source in Spanish