A judge has decided to bring a man to trial for 28 sexual offenses, largely upholding the charges brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and concluding the preliminary hearing phase initiated by the defendant’s defense.
The District Court of Lisbon North has confirmed that the teacher will stand trial for luring a minor for sexual purposes (one count), aggravated child pornography (six counts), aggravated sexual harassment (14 counts), resorting to aggravated child prostitution (three counts), child sexual abuse (three counts), and engaging in sexual acts with an adolescent (one count).
“Taking advantage of his position as a teacher and his influence over the students, the defendant decided to exploit this situation,” reads the Public Prosecutor’s Office accusation, accessed today.
The man, approximately 30 years old, allegedly used social media to initiate conversations with students or former students from schools where he taught, initially discussing everyday and school-related topics “to build trust and a position of influence over the victims” before switching to “sexual content.”
The teacher, who taught music in schools in the municipalities of Lourinhã, Óbidos, and Torres Vedras, would ask young people to send intimate photos and videos.
He reportedly met with one of the victims for sexual contact and filmed the encounter.
With other victims, he would request sexual images and videos in exchange for money or “favors related to the subject he taught.”
In one instance, he “asked [one of the victims] to send him photos, promising in return a photo of the exam answers.”
To “satisfy his sexual urges,” the teacher “exploited the victims’ inability to understand the significance of these actions… and to grasp the consequences of such behaviors, incapacities stemming from their age, which was known to the accused.”
The crimes were committed between December 2022 and mid-February 2025, with the victims being under 16 at the time of the incidents.
The defendant was arrested in mid-February of this year and remains in preventive custody pending trial.
