A Portuguese court sentenced six people to up to 18 years in prison on Friday for abusing children at a state orphanage, in a six-year court case that has shocked the nation.
The defendants, including a well-known television presenter, a former diplomat and two doctors, received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years for their participation in the abuse of children living at the Casa Pia state home.
One defendant, who had been linked to a house where abuse took place, was acquitted. The others say they will appeal. Under the Portuguese legal system the defendants remain free until all their appeals have run their course.
PHOTO: AFP
Friday’s ruling was hailed as a victory by those fighting for children’s rights in the country.
“The stories that I heard were the most terrible of my life,” said Catalina Pestana, who was put in charge of Casa Pia after the crimes were first reported in 2002.
“I think Portugal, the country, all of us, won a lot from this process. Now, when a child accuses an adult, nobody will look with the same lack of attention that they did for many years.”
In the packed courtroom, judges Lopes Barata and Ester Santos read out the findings of the investigation, including how Carlos Silvino, a former driver at Casa Pia, had sexually abused under-aged boys in the orphanage’s garage and then paid them.
Silvino, who had confessed to some of the crimes, received the harshest sentence of 18 years. Carlos Cruz, once Portugal’s most popular television presenter, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
“There is no proof of my guilt,” Cruz said. “This brings back memories of Portugal under dictatorship.”
“These men have to be condemned, they committed barbaric crimes against humanity,” Pedro Namora, a former pupil at Casa Pia and now a lawyer, told reporters.
Many observers say the trial has shown up the slowness and inefficiency of the Portuguese courts, especially in handling a trial on this scale — 920 witnesses were heard in 460 court sessions.
“I had the feeling that more defendants’ chairs should be occupied in this court,” Namora said.
After years of being accused of lying and fabricating the stories, the victims welcomed the outcome.
“After today, a lot of things change for me,” said Francisco Guerra, 25, one of the victims. “Now I continue to have my dignity and I can look ahead.”
Five of the 32 victims, now in their early 20s, were in the courtroom with their lawyers. Another victim, sitting in the public section, cried and shook nervously during the session.
The weekly newspaper Expresso broke the story in late 2002 when it reported that a driver at Casa Pia had been abusing children at the institution for years.
Soon more alarming reports appeared, alleging that the driver had taken children from the orphanage to other places where they were abused by a number of wealthy individuals.
Before the Casa Pia case, Portuguese media had long shied away from reporting issues such as child abuse, but there was blanket coverage on Friday, with television stations giving uninterrupted coverage of the court proceedings throughout the day.
Casa Pia was founded in 1780 to help care for the hundreds of children orphaned by a massive earthquake five years earlier. Today it hosts around 4,500 orphans and children whose parents cannot care for them, spread across eight schools in the greater Lisbon area.
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
RSS