The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has upheld the eleven-year prison sentence imposed by the Provincial Court on priest Wooby Oreste J. O., born in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) in 1970 and parish priest since 2018 of San Pedro Regalado and San José de Calasanz, in Puente de Vallecas, for a continued offense of sexual assault against a parishioner. The ruling also maintains ten years of supervised release, a restraining order against the victim, and compensation of 40,000 euros. The decision is not final: the defense has announced it will appeal in cassation before the Supreme Court.
The Court of Madrid handed down the conviction in May, as InfoVaticana already reported. The events tried occurred in 2022 and the trial took place at the beginning of 2026.
A woman newly arrived from Colombia, without family or work
According to the proven facts of the ruling, the victim had just arrived from Colombia and lacked family, contacts, and employment when she went to the parish seeking help. The priest offered her housing within the parish complex in exchange for cleaning duties, and after some advances, he raped her on several occasions, entering the house with his own keys and using violence and threats.
Among those threats is the phrase recorded in the ruling: “You can’t tell anyone, it’s a scandal, I’ll shoot you and then I’ll shoot myself.” The woman reported the incidents to the Family and Women’s Unit of the National Police. According to the ruling, the victim later lived in precarious conditions.
The judges reject the theory of a plot by the volunteers
The defense argued that there was no substantial evidence and attributed the accusation to an alleged plot by Cáritas volunteers. The magistrates rejected that version and gave credibility to the victim’s testimony, supported by statements from Cáritas volunteers and other parishioners.
The ruling largely exonerated the priest of other approaches to women in 2020 and 2021, although it considers them part of a pattern of conduct. For its part, the Archdiocese of Madrid removed him from the parish in 2024, when he was already being prosecuted. In March 2026 he presented a foundation for the integration of young Haitians, according to a video shared on Facebook about the event.
Until the conviction becomes final, the prison sentence has not been executed. The cassation appeal now lies with the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.