Pretrial detention on suspicion of theft and attacks on the elderly in San Miguel

A 21-year-old man was held in pre-trial detention on suspicion of robbery, theft and violations of physical integrity, including against the elderly, on the island of Sao Miguel, PSP in the Azores reported on Monday.

According to the PSP Regional Command, the alleged crimes were committed in the municipalities of Ponta Delgada and Ribeira Grande, and on one occasion the defendant attacked an 80-year-old woman “at the door of the house, embezzling amounts of money that the elderly woman had”.

Investigators’ investigation also determined that “the defendant was the prime suspect in several other crimes that recently occurred on San Miguel Island,” the police added in a press release.

There is also “reasonably strong evidence showing that the suspect is the main perpetrator of the attempted robbery of a particularly vulnerable person” due to his advanced age, as well as being responsible for the robbery that took place in a commercial establishment located on Avenida do Mar, in the city of Ponta Delgada, and for the theft of a car in the parish of Pico da Pedra, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande.

The stolen car was later discovered by the authorities of the parish of Rabo de Peixe in the same municipality.

The PSP Regional Command emphasizes the “intense criminal activity” carried out by the defendant, who has recently been arrested twice for “theft and aggravated theft.”

For this reason, he adds, his detention allows “a significant number of crimes” to be stopped: the suspect is “heavily dependent on synthetic drugs”, and the authorities assume that he could commit new crimes in order to obtain money for consumption.

The young man was sentenced to the most serious measure of coercion, preventive detention, after attending a judicial interrogation in a Ponta Delgada court.