The teacher convicted of 62 sexual abuse crimes against 15 students, who is currently awaiting the outcome of an appeal, is once again under scrutiny after being assigned to the Gondifelos School Group in Famalicão, Braga district.
The news emerged on Monday, revealing that the teacher of Moral and Religious Education is currently on leave but may return to work at any time.
In addition to an eight-year prison sentence, the verdict prohibits him from teaching for ten years and contacting minors. Fernando Silvestre is now awaiting the Appeal Court’s decision on his challenge.
What does the Ministry of Education say?
On Monday, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre addressed questions regarding this placement, stating that the school is responsible for ensuring there is no contact with students.
“Even if he returns to school with the right to do so, he would have no contact with students. These situations occur, and I repeat, we have a large community, and unfortunately, we face these cases. Obviously, these individuals are flagged, and every school director knows that someone in this situation cannot have contact with children,” said Fernando Alexandre.
The Minister of Education stated today that the teacher, sentenced to eight years in prison for sexual abuse of minors and reassigned, will have no contact with students, with the school responsible for ensuring this.
Lusa | 13:18 – 15/09/2025
“It is the school’s responsibility, indeed. The decentralization process also involved significant accountability. Those on the ground need to have more skills and accountability,” he added.
Not the first assignment
Last year, when charged with these crimes, this teacher was placed in a school in Póvoa de Varzim. At the time, parents threatened to close the school, while the ministry argued there was no judicial decision on the case, and the then 54-year-old teacher went on leave.
Currently, the school he is assigned to is nine kilometers from where the crimes he was convicted for allegedly occurred.
The case
The teacher was sentenced to eight years in prison last October. According to the ruling, at the time of the offenses, between 2014 and 2018, the defendant was teaching Moral and Catholic Religious Education at Camilo Castelo Branco Secondary School in Famalicão, Braga, and was a theater teacher. The man faced charges for 87 crimes of sexual abuse of minors aged between 14 and 17.
62 of these crimes were proven, with the presiding judge rejecting the “conspiracy” theory presented by the teacher and labeling him “a master in the art of manipulation and deceit.”
The Guimarães Court today sentenced a Moral teacher and theater director to eight years in prison for 62 crimes of sexual abuse of dependent minors, affecting 15 students at a school in Vila Nova de Famalicão.
Lusa | 15:02 – 03/10/2024
The judges noted that the victims provided “absolutely credible, convincing, and even moving” testimonies.
“Without signs of vengeful intent, despite, on one hand, the undeniable discomfort and pain the reported facts (still) caused them and, on the other, the admiration and esteem they confessed feeling for the defendant, which explains why throughout, until the complaint, they downplayed his behavior and attitudes, which they all interpreted as ‘normal’ in theater and unmalicious,” the presiding judge emphasized.
