A man has been sentenced to ten years in prison for committing the crimes of child sexual abuse and abuse of a dependent minor, and for forcing the victim to witness his sexual relations with the victim’s mother.
The ex-partner and mother of the minor, who was also accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of child sexual abuse and abuse of a dependent minor, was acquitted due to lack of evidence, the presiding judge clarified today.
According to the judge, there are “no doubts” about the defendant’s actions aligning “more or less with the public accusation’s details.”
The presiding judge, via videoconference during the reading of the verdict, stated that the man committed “very serious sexual nature crimes” and emphasized their “repetition.”
The defendant was also given an additional sentence of a ten-year prohibition on working in professions involving regular contact with minors and from assuming parental responsibilities. He must also pay 10,000 euros in compensation to the victim.
After the verdict reading, the defense lawyer of the acquitted woman, who was excused from the session and absent, emphasized to reporters that the mother herself reported the crimes out of fear they would continue.
“During the investigation, the Public Prosecutor decided she [the accused] should also be charged,” although “no evidence was found in court” proving her guilt, said lawyer Manuel Pontes Costa.
The lawyer further clarified that the couple “had already been separated for some time” when the mother proceeded with the report.
The man was also accused of two counts of sexual abuse related to another woman’s daughter with whom he had lived in the past, but the Coimbra Court argued there was “no certainty about what may or may not have happened,” and thus acquitted him of these charges.
According to the indictment viewed by Lusa agency, the victim’s mother, now acquitted, lived with the defendant from June 2015 to April 2023, in a municipality in the Coimbra district, where the defendant’s two children from a previous relationship and the accused woman’s daughter also resided.
The abuses were alleged to have taken place throughout the time they lived together (the defendant is currently in pretrial detention), both while the minor lived in their home and after the victim was institutionalized in 2020. The crimes allegedly occurred during the victim’s weekend or holiday visits home.
According to the prosecution, the defendant told the victim she had to “see and do what he said,” as a way for her mother to repay “everything he had done for them and the money he gave them,” threatening to abandon the victim’s mother if she did not comply with his requests.
