The collective of judges determined that a 45-year-old defendant, currently in preventive detention and absent from today’s reading of the judgment, suffers from a mild intellectual development disorder, as the assessment concluded. However, at the time of the incidents, she had the capacity to evaluate the wrongdoing of her actions and recognize that starting fires is wrong.
“(…) Even though the defendant’s capacity for self-determination was diminished, considering her low frustration tolerance due to her cognitive limitations and anxious and depressive symptoms, this is not enough to consider the defendant as not responsible,” the judgment noted.
The court found that the woman’s mental anomaly is not severe enough to declare her irresponsible for her actions, considering she has no criminal record.
“[The defendant] confessed to some of the facts she was accused of but downplayed their severity,” the presiding judge mentioned, justifying the lack of sentence suspension with her conduct before and after the incidents, which presents “risk factors.”
The accusation, fully upheld, stated that the case dates back to the afternoon of June 2, 2024, when the woman left her home for her usual walk toward the Vale de Góis area. She entered a forest path, where, after smoking a cigarette, she discarded the lit butt on the ground that was densely covered with scrub and hay, sparking a fire.
The fire spread and burned approximately 200 square meters of forest area, according to the Public Prosecutor (MP).
Continuing her path to Vale de Góis, about two minutes later, she lit another cigarette and placed it, still lit, on the ground amidst dense scrub and hay, initiating another fire, which burned around 4,500 square meters of forest area.
The firefighter left the scene and, using her mobile phone, alerted the SOS Fire Line (n.º 117) and started her journey back home, the MP reported.
“The area where the fires broke out is a forest zone composed of eucalyptus, cork oaks, oaks, maritime pine, and scrub, all in a continuous horizontal band of combustible vegetation, spanning hundreds of hectares, contiguous to the Pedrógão Grande campground” (Leiria district), where 22 people were present.
The MP added that “the locations where the two fire outbreaks occurred were still about 800 meters from a residential area,” precisely where the defendant lived.
The fires were battled by 57 responders, supported by 16 vehicles and three aircraft, and were only prevented from spreading to the surrounding forest, the campground, and the defendant’s residence by the prompt mobilization and intervention of these resources.
“The defendant has been a firefighter for about 22 years, currently in reserve” because “she has not performed duty shifts for a year due to a conflict with the fire department commander,” stated the MP.
During trial, the defendant, who was initially under house arrest before facing stricter bail conditions, admitted to causing one fire “by accident” but denied being the source of the other.
She claimed she went for a walk and “by distraction” touched the cigarette butt to the ferns, igniting the fire.
“I tried to put it out with my feet and couldn’t. I called 117 immediately. It was not on purpose. It was an accident,” she stated in court.
