Couple sentenced in Leiria to up to 14 years in prison for sex crimes against daughter

The Leiria Judiciary Court this Monday sentenced the couple to up to 14 years in prison for sexual offenses against their daughter.

The victim’s father was legally sentenced to 14 years in prison for five offenses of sexual abuse of a child and six offenses of sexual abuse of a dependent minor.

The mother was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison for five offenses of sexual abuse of a child and one offense of sexual abuse of a dependent minor.

The court realized that it did not reduce the punishment, noting that in the case of the mother, who acted out of inaction, “had a” monopoly “on the means of saving” her daughter.

Parents, he is 43 years old, she is 42 years old, both were placed under preventive measures, the panel of judges also determined as an additional punishment a ban on engaging in a profession, employment, functions or activities, the implementation of which is associated with regular contacts with minors for a period of 10 years.

In addition, they are prohibited from assuming the trust of a minor, in particular adoption, guardianship, guardianship, foster care, civil sponsorship, transfer, guardianship or trust management of minors for 15 years, the same period during which they are prohibited from exercising parental responsibilities.

Both were also sentenced to jointly pay 50,000 euros to their daughter in compensation for the damage caused.

The defendants were accused by the prosecutor’s office of committing 36 crimes of sexual abuse of minors and 99 crimes of sexual abuse of dependent minors, in the case of the mother in the form of inaction, having committed before the announcement of the verdict, the chairman of the panel of judges reported an insignificant change in facts and a change in legal qualifications.

The court, among other things, proved that the victim, at the age of 7 to 8 years, when the family lived abroad, on unspecified dates and a number of times, was caressed by the defendant “in the genital area”, i.e. that “in some of these situations” he inserted his fingers in the presence of this mother.

A team of judges proved other sexual crimes already committed in Portugal, in the municipality of Peniche. To justify his behavior, on several occasions the defendant told his daughter that “what he was doing was to prepare her for an adult sex life,” the verdict says.

According to the document, the father once had sexual intercourse with his daughter, while the mother “was present and watched everything”, and then interrupted him to have sex with a woman, “and so on.”

In another case, a father called his daughter to his bed so that she could “see her parents having sex.” The court stated that the victim told her mother about the abuse and asked her to talk to her father to stop it.

In May 2022, the victim spoke to her mother again, informing her that she was going to file a criminal complaint against her father, fearing that “he would do the same” to her sister.

Among other aspects, on the question of guilt, the court gave “full credibility” to the statements about the future memory of the victim, although it could not “specify exactly how many times the facts occurred, which is quite understandable, given the age of the same at the date of the facts and the frequency of one and the same”, you can “conclude with security about the occurrence of the same” in the specified number of times.

When determining the penalties, inter alia, “the very high demands of general prevention are applied, which are felt, given the frequency with which crimes of this kind are committed in the family, which should constitute a protective factor, the social anxiety they cause and its consequences for the victims”.

The court also took into account “the manner in which the acts were carried out and their severity”, the circumstances in which they occurred and their duration (more than eight years), with “the deterioration of the conduct practiced over time”.