Three young individuals, aged between 17 and 18, are accused of robbing several homosexual men since November 2024, using bladed weapons. The victims were targeted through a dating application for the LGBTQ+ community.
The incidents have been investigated by the Public Security Police (PSP) via the Cascais division, following an investigation into four aggravated robberies.
In a statement, the PSP reported that the suspects used the application to lure male victims to meetings in an abandoned house in the Parede area of the Cascais municipality.
At that location, the victims were “threatened, assaulted, and humiliated” by the suspects, who forced them, “under the coercion of bladed weapons, to dance and perform homophobic chants”, according to the statement.
Under the same threat, the three youths stole mobile phones, “other personal belongings” from the victims, and made “unauthorized bank withdrawals, which they subsequently shared among themselves.”
The authorities seized the suspects’ mobile phones, on which the PSP found videos of the crimes recorded by the youths themselves. The police highlighted that the footage demonstrates “the planned nature of their actions and the high level of coldness and violence in executing the robberies, with some victims requiring hospital treatment.”
Additionally, the PSP discovered evidence linking the three suspects to two other robberies that followed similar patterns. One of these robberies also involved a bladed weapon, while the other involved a firearm — information that has been forwarded to judicial authorities for potential reopening of the case.
The detainees have already appeared for an initial judicial hearing at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Cascais Court and are now in preventive detention. They are suspected of committing robbery crimes.
