| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
LISBON: A Portuguese court sentenced six men to jail on Friday for sexually abusing dozens of children at a state-run care home and procuring boys to be raped at orgies, at the end of a marathon abuse trial.
The convicts included a star television presenter, a former ambassador, a doctor, a lawyer and a former administrator at the Casa Pia children's home in Lisbon, who each received sentences of between five and seven years.
They were also ordered to pay damages of between 15,000 and 25,000 euros (20,000 to 32,000 dollars) to past victims of the abuse, six of whom were in the packed courtroom to hear the ruling.
The heaviest sentence, 18 years, went to Carlos Silvino, a former driver and gardener at the home and the only defendant to have pleaded guilty to more than 600 counts of abuse.
He was convicted of more than 100 counts of child sexual abuse and incitement to prostitution, after the longest running trial in Portuguese history, which opened in November 2004.
A seventh defendant, the woman owner of a house where sex sessions were said to have taken place, was acquitted.
Prosecutors had called for minimum sentences of five years in the mass abuse case, which has deeply shocked Portugal.
In their verdict, the judges detailed dozens of cases of sex abuse and procuring minors for clients, committed against 32 children at the Casa Pia children's home, which they considered to have been proven.
All six of the victims present in court punched the air in sign of victory, smiling broadly with relief as the verdict was read out.
"We are all very happy," one of them, Bernardo Teixeira, told reporters outside the courtroom. "At long last we can say that the paedophiles have been convicted."
But a lawyer for the former TV presenter Carlos Cruz slammed the ruling.
"This is a disgrace. We will make our voices heard to fight the enormous judicial error that has been committed today," said Ricardo Sa Fernandes.
The lawyer for the main defendant Silvino also said he would appeal.
The court heard from nearly a thousand witnesses and experts, and the trial went on for so long that none of the defendants was in detention, the legal limit for pre-trial custody having expired.
All six defendants convicted will remain free pending appeal procedures.
The full judgment, which reportedly reached several thousand pages, took several hours to read out.
The Casa Pia scandal broke in November 2002 when an inmate of the home for youngsters in difficult circumstances told the press of being raped by Silvino.
Other residents and former residents came forward to tell of rapes and "special evenings."
Aside from Silvino, the defendants had consistently claimed their innocence, and said before Friday's verdict that they would continue to fight the charges no matter what the verdict.
A number of other media and political figures have also been investigated and cleared in the case.
In March 2006, a court ordered the Portuguese government to pay two million euros (2.5 million dollars) in compensation to 44 former Casa Pia residents, saying it had failed in its duty to protect the children.
"Casa Pia bears a share of responsibility in what happened," read Friday's verdict, which found that the Lisbon institution had "underestimated the risks facing its pupils."
- AFP/de
|
