Global Courant
Former language teacher Adrián Dario Rowek (53) received a 20-year prison sentence for abusing his students. In addition, he was permanently disqualified from teaching with minors. Three years earlier they had arrested him at his house in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Real, where he was lying in bed with one of his students, a minor under 14 years of age.
The judges of the Collegiate Court of Criminal, Misdemeanor and Misdemeanor Justice Natalia Ohman, Gabriela Zangaro and Ricardo Baldomar held that “taking advantage of his status as a teacher and the trust that the families had placed in him to care for and guide their children, committed different crimes against the sexual integrity of eight children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15 who were his students or had been between the 6th and 7th grades of primary school”.
The Court sentenced the former teacher of the “Abel Ayerza” Elementary School for committing the crimes of aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse with aggravated carnal access (the victims were between 13 and 15 years old), grooming, possession of child sexual abuse material and providing pornographic material to a minor.
The Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor’s Office had requested a 40-year prison sentence for Rowek, known by teachers, family members and students as “Pipi”. The Fiscal Unit Specialized in Computer Crimes and Contraventions of the City (Ufedyci), in charge of Daniela Dupuy, made the accusation.
The fundamentals will be known on Friday, July 7. From that moment, the parties may appeal the sentence. Despite the fact that the sentence is not final, the Court ordered that Rowek’s preventive detention be maintained.
Rowek at the time of his arrest.
The Ufedyci established the modus operandi that the defendant displayed with his victims, from his beginnings as a teacher in the 1990s until the moment of his arrest in May 2020.
The teacher’s behavior consisted “in the imposition and provocation of communications through social networks of a high sexual content by Rowek, insistent questions about sexuality, sending and displaying pornographic material, including photos of his own genitals and ejaculating” .
He also told his students sexual stories where he was the protagonist, made invitations and suggestions to have sexual relations and asked for photos of the genitals. He also had film material and images of sexual exploitation of minors in large quantities inside the computers that were found at his home.
In some cases, these acts constituted crimes in themselves and in others they were the previous ones to commit more serious crimes of sexual abuse based on manipulation. Added to that he provided the boys with alcoholic beverages and marijuana at home.
The history
Rumors of his abusive actions began to circulate when he worked as a tutor at the National College of Buenos Aires (CNBA). “Rowek came from a private elementary school, from where he had been kicked out for dishonest behavior with several 13-year-old students, after a graduate trip. The conversations were all sexual in tone,” a CNBA worker recalled to Clarín some time ago. .
Apart from the whirr there were indications that Rowek was not behaving as he should. “He confused the professional facet with the social one, he didn’t separate the goals… he liked to party,” said another source. And he clarified that “he always wanted to join the trips to Tilcara organized by the fourth and fifth years, outside the school, so from the institution we asked that no one was linked to it. But he had to emphasize it. “
Finally, the school did not renew the contract due to suspicions. But that didn’t stop him. In May 2020, during the pandemic, the mother of a 12-year-old boy, a student at a Villa Devoto school, denounced him.
The woman contributed chats with photos of the genitals of the teacher who sent her son. Justice acted quickly: they arrested him in flagrante-he was lying in bed with a student under the age of 14-and they ordered preventive detention.
When the case came to light, 21 victims – minors at the time of the events – approached the Ufedyci to denounce it. However, the trial focused on eight victims, since the crimes suffered by the other 12 had prescribed.
Chamber I of the Criminal, Misdemeanor and Misdemeanors Chamber declared the prescription of these facts and the Superior Court of Justice of Buenos Aires confirmed it. But due to the right of the victims to be heard and the Truth Trials were able to testify during the trial all the complainants.
The trial for the right to the truth attributes responsibility, that is, it indicates that a person committed the crimes, but does not set a penalty.
Beyond that trial, the rules changed over time and expanded protection for victims of this type of crime. In 2011, the Piazza law modified the statute of limitations for sexual abuse in childhood and established that this term begins to run from the time the abused person reaches the age of 18.
Later, in 2015, Law 27,206 was passed, which modifies the Penal Code for the prescription of sexual crimes and trafficking. It establishes that the term begins to run from the time the victim makes the complaint.
Where to ask for help
Line 102 is a free and confidential service, specialized attention on the rights of children and adolescents. Girls, boys and adolescents can call in a situation of threat, violation of rights, to ask for advice or talk to someone.
Family members, other relevant adults (teachers, neighbors, government agencies and civil society) and any individual who knows or suspects that the rights of a minor are being affected can also be contacted.
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