A man, aged 44 and residing in the southern part of the Leiria district, has been sentenced to a cumulative payment of €65,195 to several victims, covering both material and non-material damages, according to a court ruling released on Tuesday.
The defendant, placed under identification and residence oversight, faced charges for 1,059 counts of child sexual abuse, though he was acquitted of 564 counts.
In one case involving a victim who was the defendant’s goddaughter and born in 2002, the abuse began when she was just four years old, continuing until 2014 at various locations including the residence, a garage, a car, and a warehouse.
Another victim, born in 2007, was the daughter of a friend of the defendant and a friend of his children, frequently visiting his home. The court validated that abuse occurred between 2014 and 2015 at his residence.
Regarding the third victim, born in 2010 and the daughter of a friend of the defendant’s wife, the crimes took place in either 2018 or 2019 during a weekend stay at the man’s home.
“The defendant acted with the clear aim of satisfying his libidinous desires, which he neither knew how nor wished to restrain, using the children for this purpose,” the ruling states, highlighting that he was aware the victims were under 14 years at the relevant times.
The court observed that the man was indifferent to their ages and the impact of his actions, using his proximity and relationship of trust for easy access.
The panel of judges further determined that the defendant knew he was severely disrupting the personality development of the victims, infringing on their innocence and sexual modesty, thus compromising their normal psychological, emotional, and sexual development.
According to the court, the man violated the trust and protective feelings the minors had towards him, considering that due to their age, they lacked the capacity to resist or comprehend the nature of the sexual acts they were subjected to.
The court’s conviction heavily relied on the compelling testimony of the defendant’s goddaughter, who provided a clear, detailed, and confident account of the offenses from an early age, alongside similarly crucial future memory statements from the two other victims.
The defendant denied most of the accusations, admitting only to engaging in sexual relations with his goddaughter on three separate occasions when she was 12 years old.
The court noted that these admissions represent only the “tip of a vast iceberg” of offenses stretching back to when the victim was four.
In determining the sentence, the court considered the extreme unlawfulness of the defendant’s actions, particularly against his goddaughter, the high social condemnation these acts incite, and the significant risk of recidivism, given his lack of ethical and moral reflection and the multiple victims involved.
The judges pointed out the compelling need for general deterrence, as child sexual abuse crimes cause significant social alarm and distress, eliciting repulsion and indignation in the community. In the defendant’s favor were his good professional, familial, and social integration, and a lack of prior criminal record.
