A former basketball coach of the training divisions of Gymnastics and Shooting of Salta was sentenced to nine years in prison after admitting his guilt in a case of sexual abuse that had a minor as a victim. The ruling of the Court of Chamber 1 of Salta, in an abbreviated trial, sentenced Mario Aballay, who after a negotiation with the young man who accused him, admitted his guilt, according to the website of the newspaper El Tribuno. In February of this year, a 20-year-old man accused the coach of having subjected him to abuse when he was a minor and was under his technical direction as a player. The complaint immediately reached the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) where prosecutor Cecilia Toranzo, from the Sexual Crimes Unit 3, intervened and requested Aballay’s arrest. The young man pointed out that he was the victim of abuse by the coach between the ages of 12 and 15, both inside the sports entity and abroad. According to her, the coach had designated him as the “best” player in his promotion and would pick him up from Monday to Friday at his home to attend practices. Always according to the details that were known, it all started with friction that seemed casual, followed by groping until the sexual abuse was perpetrated in an old box next to the club’s basketball court. The case caused a stir at the time he was in the city of Salta, where Aballay spent a large part of his life and was a renowned trainer of several generations of athletes from one of the most traditional institutions in the northern capital. AMR/SPC NA
