In the National Assembly (AN) there is a willingness to listen to a victim of William James Vahey, the American pedophile who worked at the Campo Alegre School, Caracas, between 2002 and 2009, a period in which he abused 30 students of that institution , according to research.
Of those 30 victims, only one sued the Campo Alegre School for moral damages, a civil lawsuit that has been ongoing for eight years without a final ruling, according to Javier Pipkin and Eddy Méndez Naranjo, the plaintiff’s attorneys.
Pipkin and Méndez went to the National Assembly to request a hearing so that the victim can denounce the procedural delay he has suffered during eight years of trial. They reported that in the Legislative Branch they were received by deputy Asia Villegas, president of the Permanent Commission of Families and Freedom of Religion and Worship.
“The deputy was very receptive to us and became aware of the issue,” said Méndez, who pointed out that Villegas promised to manage a right to speak so that the victim speaks before the Permanent Commission.
The scandal
The trial for non-pecuniary damage began in 2014 by the Lopnna courts in Caracas where the judges found no crime in the defendant, that is, the Campo Alegre School, the employer of William James Vahey, the victim’s defense attorneys highlighted.
As a result, the victim went to the Social Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice where he denounced the irregularities committed by the Lopnna courts. During the course of the trial, the Ombudsman’s Office requested to join, an approach approved by the Social Chamber.
Last July, the magistrates concluded the substantiation phase and entered the final phase for which they called a hearing to be held on July 28. But, 16 hours before that event, the highest court informed the lawyers that the hearing had been suspended. “That caused us a lot of strangeness,” Pipkin said.
All the abuses committed by William James Vahey were discovered in 2014 when this person was already residing in Managua, Nicaragua. On that date, a domestic found a flash drive in Vahey’s residence, which contained multiple nude and drugged photos of students between the ages of 9 and 12. The maid handed that flash drive to the director of the Nicaraguan school where Vahey taught.
With the material in her hands, the director confronted Vahey, who confessed to her that he had indeed committed abuses against students since 1972 at the 10 schools where he taught, located on four continents; one of them the Campo Alegre School. Subject planned trips to the interior and exterior. And at night, he delivered milk and cookies filled with cream mixed with sleeping pills to the rooms. By drugging them, he abused them and took photos that he kept on his flash drive, according to the file.
The director of that Nicaraguan school expelled Vahey and handed over the flash drive to the FBI, whose office is in the United States embassy of that Central American country.
From there, the FBI published a file cataloging Vahey as “the pederast most prolific child in history. A few days after disseminating that poster, the FBI called a meeting of parents and representatives at the United States embassy, Valle Arriba headquarters, Baruta municipality, Miranda state. That meeting was held on May 9, 2014, the day the FBI informed the attendees that Vahey’s flash drive contained 90 photographs of abused children: 30 from the Campo Alegre School and 60 from another similar school in London.
It is pending that the Social Chamber of the TSJ again convene a hearing on the civil lawsuit for non-pecuniary damage against the Campo Alegre School. After that hearing, the magistrates will issue a sentence.
