Nor sexual rituals for healing purposes. No child abuse. Not child porn. Nor orgies around the “triangle of light” or the “circle of the 7 chosen ones”. No hierarchy. No movement restrictions. No coercion. Nothing. In the hour and a quarter that lasted the eighth hearing of the trial against six exponents of the sect based in a farmhouse in Vistabella (Castellón), the first five witnesses proposed by the defense denied – or admitted not remembering in other cases – that the horror and dogma described in the previous seven days had marked life inside that bunker a few kilometers from the town centre.
The five, all followers of the pseudo-religious group led by Uncle Toni, who died in prison a few months after being arrested, praised his figure and his power. “He was a special being. With his word he healed you,” said the first witness, a 29-year-old girl born within the sect, before its move to Vistabella, and sister of one of the complainants of sexual abuse when she was a minor. “For me (the organization) was my family,” the young woman indicated. According to the prosecution, she is the leader’s biological daughter. When asked about it this Thursday, she replied bluntly: “I have no intention of taking a paternity test.”
What the five have in common is their cohabitation for years in La Chaparra and their friendship – or relationship – with the six defendants, a man and five women – including the leader’s partner and daughter-in-law – accused of nine continuous crimes of sexual abuse, six against a minor and one crime of illicit association, and for whom the prosecution is asking for prison terms of between 16 and 76 years.
With their testimonies, the witnesses painted a scenario, if not idyllic, at least “democratic” and very far from the stories of attacks, abuse and coercion told by the victims and the police officers who intervened in the operation that dismantled the sect in May 2023. The police ensured that sex was used as a form of payment within the organization and confirmed the presence in the room of the spiritual guide of multiple sexual objects, pornographic videos, books, sacred objects and locks of the hair of the gurus placed in envelopes that the members of the sect treasured. “Yes, I kept a lock of Antonio’s hair. For me it was a sign of love, of affection. Nothing more. Others had them too”, says the young woman, for whom Uncle Toni was “a point of reference for improvement, because despite his state of health – he had polio and respiratory failure – he always woke up with a smile”.
Sex which, according to previous testimonies, the leader would have used repeatedly for “healing purposes”, became in this Thursday’s session a fundamental guide for health protection. “In sexual matters, our parents had been helped and (Uncle Toni) wanted us to be prepared. He only spoke to us about what could happen to us with boys and warned us against bad experiences,” the young woman said. He never participated in any pornography sessions with the leader and other minors, a tactic that many of the victims said he used to introduce children to sex. He has never attended any sex therapy.
He defended that the children’s entrances and exits from Uncle Toni’s room were regular and free: “We went up because we wanted to kiss him goodnight.” He was a friend of the victims who described in the trial the sexual abuse they suffered in La Chaparra. “We told each other everything, but they never told me anything about those abuses,” he underlined.
The father of this witness, who also testified today, was captured by Antonio like many others, taking advantage of a delicate personal moment marked by his partner’s mental health problems. “He was the only one to ensure that my wife never entered a mental hospital again.” He did it with his “laying on of hands”. In the 16 years he spent in the sect he did not witness sexual abuse: “I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Like his daughter, he stressed that Uncle Toni had not been sent by God – “he only said that he had an energy that could help” – nor was he above the others: “Everything fell on him; but he did not command; in the group decisions were made between everyone, and we argued because we didn’t all think the same way”, underlined the man. Those arguments, motivated by “envy, jealousy, resentment and the economic side, broke up the group”, the young woman noted for her part.
One of the prosecutors confirmed after the hearing that “with the prosecution’s evidence to date”, they have no doubt that Toni was responsible, “but it is clear that there was a hierarchy, a group under him that helped carry out all the activities that took place there for 30 years”. “The hierarchical figure of others is essential”, he defended, referring to the six defendants, who the public prosecutor and the private prosecutor consider necessary collaborators in facts, including the abuse of minors.
Another of the witnesses who testified on Thursday, the daughter of one of the defendants, confirmed her friendship with several victims. “Until they filed charges and arrested my mother,” the 34-year-old woman said. He came to the farm when he was just eight years old and lived there for almost a decade. She was “shocked” when, once outside the group, several young women told her about the abuse. “They never told me anything.” It was April 2021.
He did not participate in the therapies and says he has no knowledge of whether the leader had sexual relations with adults and minors inside the farmhouse. Regarding the rites practiced at La Chaparra, he limited himself to saying: “When Easter arrived we lit candles and little else.”
Another witness was just 18 when her father’s mental illness struck her. “I was sad and overwhelmed.” He met Tonino. “They told me he was a person dedicated to helping people.” He lived for 30 years in La Chaparra. He confirmed that he entered the leader’s room at all times, going so far as to say that he was not allowed to rest and that he did so “freely and voluntarily”.
The last witness of the session, a shareholder of La Chaparra, followed Antonio in absolute admiration for his figure. “An acquaintance told me about him, she said he did the laying on of hands. Since I saw him as such a good person, I wanted to know where he lived and I went to the farm. He touched my knee and I felt better, I was calmer.” She was part of the “triangle of light” and the “circle of the chosen seven”, where according to previous testimonies the leader promoted group orgies and masturbation and among which there was a girl, but in her statement on Thursday the woman indicated that she did not remember which members they were and that these practices were used for prayer. “We asked the world not to let bad things happen, to give light.”
The trial faces the last phase of the witness round with the last of the 53 summoned, who will testify between Friday and next Monday. On 26 and 27 November the dozen experts will take over and from 1 to 3 December the six defendants will testify.
