“The only applicable sentence for the case at hand is an effective prison term, preventing the repetition of criminal behavior,” argued the Public Prosecutor (MP) in an appeal submitted to the Court of Appeal in Guimarães, accessed today by the Lusa agency.
In April, the Judicial Court of Viana do Castelo sentenced the man to two years and nine months in prison, suspended for three years, for four counts of sexual abuse of two children.
For each of the four crimes of child sexual abuse, the 43-year-old defendant was sentenced to four months, eight months, one year and four months, and one year and eight months in prison.
In a cumulative legal sentence, the defendant left the court with two years and nine months in prison, suspended for three years, and was also prohibited from holding public or private positions involving children for five years.
The court also sentenced the man, who had no previous criminal record, to pay 3,500 euros in civil damages for non-patrimonial harm.
In the 15 conclusions supporting the appeal, the MP argues that the suspension of the prison sentence for the defendant lacks “factual substantiation.”
The prosecutor argues that “to apply the regime of suspension of the prison sentence execution, it must first be possible to make a favorable prognosis regarding the defendant (that the act committed does not align with his personality and was a simple, sporadic accident).”
Secondly, that “special prevention does not irremediably undermine the necessary protection of legal assets and the stabilization of the community’s factual expectations, namely the social reproach of the crime or the community’s legal sentiment — general prevention.”
“There are no factual elements in the records nor did the trial reveal any that would allow the court to make a reasonable prognosis or establish any trust relationship with the defendant, resulting in the opposite conclusion from both the proven facts and the motivation of the decision, regarding a defendant who did not admit the facts, gave an absurd explanation related to his poor behavior, showing no remorse or firm will to change, which constitutes an irreconcilable contradiction between the reasoning and the decision,” the document reads.
According to the MP, “the defendant did not confess, admitting only what is undeniable from the transcribed messages and, even regarding these, attributed a meaning entirely contrary to common sense and the rules of experience.”
“Does any adult, having problems in life, date children? Wants to take children’s virginity?” questions the MP.
For the MP, the defendant “showed no remorse, belittling the proven facts, only wanting to resolve” the case “to move on elsewhere (perhaps perpetrating new acts against other children entrusted to him by their parents).”
“How does the community view a defendant, tutor, responsible for the education and safety of children, who commits four crimes of child sexual abuse, does not confess, shows no remorse, and, because he has no criminal record and is family-integrated (which he was at the time of the facts) nothing happens to him except having to be accompanied/helped (…) How to believe in the punishment for this crime,” questions the MP.
One of the victims involved in this case attended the ATL center between July and August 2022.
According to the accusation, the defendant also maintained “similar behavior” with a cousin of the minor, who also attended the same ATL center, between 2018 and August 2022.
