A 36-year-old man kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and raped and beat her repeatedly over 21 hours in a Lisbon apartment. He intended, with these crimes, to force the victim, 34, to resume the relationship. This Friday, he was arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) and placed in preventive detention.
The couple shared accommodation for four months, but the relationship was always troubled and, according to the PJ, “marked by frequent episodes of aggression and deprivation of liberty”. Despite living in an authentic nightmare, the woman never filed a complaint for domestic violence and the case was not flagged by the authorities.
The violence exercised by the partner led, however, to the victim ending the relationship on July 21 and leaving the residence she shared with the aggressor. The decision was never accepted by the individual.
Deceived surveillance of victim’s friend
Last Wednesday, the ex-couple arranged a meeting for the afternoon of that day so that the man could deliver to the victim some personal belongings and documents that she had left in the house. The Gare do Oriente train station, a very busy place in Lisbon, was the chosen location.
Fearing that she would be attacked again, the woman was accompanied by a friend, but her former boyfriend still managed to arrange for her to be alone with him, and at that point he forced her, under threat, to go to an apartment in the capital.
The victim was abducted and subjected to “successive assaults and rapes” for 21 consecutive hours. Using these violent methods, the aggressor wanted to force the ex-partner to resume the recently ended relationship.
Rapid detention
On Friday morning, the individual eventually released the victim and allowed her to leave the apartment. The investigation believes that he was convinced that, for fear of reprisals and further assault, the woman would remain silent, but she complained about the crime she had suffered.
The case was then handed over to the PJ’s National Counter-Terrorism Unit which, in the early hours of Friday, located and arrested the suspect. The arrest took place in the city of Lisbon, from which the attacker never tried to escape. After the interrogation, the judge of criminal instruction decreed the preventive detention of the detainee.
