The professor faced charges of negligent homicide, but the judge determined that the facts did not support the more serious charge and amended the facts without substantial alteration.
The man was tried following the death of a 15-year-old student due to a goalpost collapse on May 25, 2021, during a physical education class for a 9th-grade group at the Colégio Conciliar de Maria Imaculada (CCMI) in Leiria.
“I apply a penalty below the average, which will be suspended for an equal period without any probation. No penalty will bring David back to life, and no penalty will cause the accused more suffering than what he endured that day,” stated the judge, acknowledging that the accused was “emotionally devastated” by the incident.
The sentence aims to “restore some social and emotional peace for those involved,” she added.
The court concluded that despite warning the school and the football academy about the lack of counterweights and reminding students not to hang on the goals, the teacher used the equipment without counterweights.
However, “warning does not eliminate the risk, given the ages of the students involved. On this day, he overlooked the possibility that the goal could fall on a student and cause death. It was his decision to use the goalpost that day and under those circumstances,” the judge remarked.
“He should have ensured the goalpost was secured to prevent a fall. The failure to fulfill his duties as a teacher should have anticipated the consequences. By not doing so, he significantly increased the risk of accident and consequences, as it happened,” she emphasized.
During the sentencing, the judge acknowledged that previously other students had hung on the unsupported goalpost “without falls or injuries,” but stressed that the teacher was aware of the danger as indicated by his constant warnings to the institutions and chose to use the same goalpost.
It was not proven that the teacher’s conduct “was the direct cause of the young man’s death” or that “counterweights were available or accessible to the teacher that day.”
“Given the concern by the accused, it would not make sense to have counterweights and not use them,” she continued.
The judge clarified that the trial aimed only to determine the teacher’s responsibility and not anyone else’s, noting that the CCMI director was cleared at the pre-trial stage and the president of the football academy was a witness in the process.
The director of CCMI was initially accused by the Public Prosecutor of negligent homicide, but the criminal instruction judge decided not to take her to trial.
The Public Prosecutor’s charges detail that at 4:50 PM, one of the groups “was playing handball next to” one of the goals.
“One of the students was positioned at the goalpost as a goalkeeper, and the other three exchanged the ball to shoot and score a goal.”
“At this moment, as they had just scored a goal, they changed the goalkeeper,” the indictment describes, stating that following this switch, the victim “ran towards the goal and hung from the crossbar.”
Immediately, the student was “projected forward along with the goalpost, falling to the ground face down, with the goal collapsing on him and hitting him in the head area.”
Despite “immediate first aid and the intervention” of the teacher and “emergency services being activated,” the student passed away at 5:44 PM at the Leiria hospital.
