Chicago – A shameful Public Schools in Chicago was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for the sexual abuse and attacks of young male students entrusted to his care, according to the court reports.
Andrew Castro, 38, was a physical education teacher at the Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School in Avondale and got to know the families of the victims through the sporting events of the boys, said officers of justice. He grew so close to two of his victims that he attracted interest to become their godfather.
On Thursday, Castro argued guilty of predatory criminal sexual attack of a child under the age of 13, two counts of worsened criminal sexual abuse of a child under the age of 13, and exploitation of a child under the age of 13, according to judicial data. Judge Domenica Stephenson sentenced him up to 10 years before the attack, seven years for each abuse case and a year before exploitation. Because two of the sentences are operated simultaneously, his total imprisonment is 17 years old.
Two brothers, who were between 8 and 11 years old at the time of the crimes, began to visit Castro’s house to play video games, watch films and spend the night, according to public prosecutors. They said from 2018 to 2019, Castro de Boys employed by a “dice game” where the one who rolled the lowest number to expose or touch their private parts.
Officials said that the sexual behavior escalated and in June 2020 Castro mistreated one of the boys, who was 11 years old. He has repeatedly attacked the boy in the next two years, claimed public prosecutors.
Castro was arrested after the parents of another victim were worried when they noticed cuts on the child’s arms. He unveiled the abuse to a family member and his parents reported it to the Chicago police.
A lawsuit brought on behalf of the victims was arranged for $ 2 million last year, according to the federal court reports. Judge Andrea Wood ordered every boy to receive $ 444,444.44 in the settlement. Their lawyers collected a total of $ 666,666.66.
In May 2021, the school mailed parents to report that an employee who was “inappropriate with a student” was removed pending an investigation. The boys denied that Castro had done something wrong when their parents asked, according to a lawsuit that was filed after the authorities had filed charges. The suit said that the parents of the victims allowed the boys to continue to have guests at Castro because CPS did not reveal that Castro had been suspended for sexual behavior.
Castro later informed one of the boys that he had been removed from the school and would not return to the boy who accused him of inappropriate graduating graduates, according to the court case.
In the late autumn 2021, Castro raped one of the boys who was 12 years old, after requesting a back massage, according to the allegations of the court case. It said that he raped the boy a second time after he brought the boys on a store trip to five to five below and during a third occasion in the Castro apartment.
A lawyer from the office of the CPS inspector General in April 2022 contacted the parents of the two brothers to let them know that they may have been involved with or witnessed inappropriate behavior by an employee.
The lawyer would have spoken with the boy with the boy during school hours with the permission of his parents. At the request of Castro, the boy lied about what had happened to protect Castro’s educational license, the court case said.
Finally, around mother’s day 2023, the boy who was repeatedly sexually abused, revealed the size of Castro’s behavior to a female family member after he found himself, according to the court case. His parents went to the police. CPD detectors told them that Castro had four previous complaints about sexual abuse where the police were obliged to tell the school district, the case claimed.
Castro is obliged to submit DNA to a database for law enforcement and to register as a sex offender for life.
Note of the editors: This story has been updated to display a sense of 17 years. An earlier version wrongly said that he had been convicted of 25 years.
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