Six and a half years in prison for teenager who raped two girls in Famalicana

The Guimarães court sentenced this Thursday to six and a half years in prison a man who raped two girls (29 times in each case) in Joan, Vila Nova de Famalicão.

At the time the events began, the victims were eight and ten years old, and the accused was 16.

The victims lived “from a young age” with the defendant’s mother and, therefore, with him.

The violations occurred between March 2014 and August 2016 “with a frequency of at least once a month.”

According to the court, we are talking about important actions of a sexual nature.

“The defendant acted freely, willfully and knowingly, driven by lustful excitement and with the aim of satisfying his sexual and lascivious desires, knowing full well the age” of the victims, due to the relationship between them, the ruling says.

The victims considered the defendant like a brother.

The court also found that the accused took advantage of the fact that he lived in the same room with the victims to commit the abuse.

The violence only ended when the children were placed in a specialized institution.

In court, the defendant, now 25, denied all the facts, citing fraud or retaliation on the part of the victims, which he understood to be the result of jealousy over his relationship with his partner and the news that he was having a child.

This version was not accepted by the court, which considered, however, that the acts committed by the defendant “do not reveal or openly and clearly manifest a worthless personality or personality inclinations, despite their gravity.”

The court finds that this was an “isolated act, facilitated precisely by the defendant’s young age, who was in the middle of adolescence, a period of learning and exploration of the body and sexuality.”

Judges also took into account that the accused has no criminal record and is a person “well integrated into his family, with the necessary support to successfully avoid a life of crime.”

Therefore, they decided to apply a special regime for young people, which represents a significant mitigation of the punishment.

To the defendant’s detriment, the court considered the intense and direct intent, the “relatively long” period over which he committed the violence, and the nature of the crimes, as well as several types of significant sexual activity.

The defendant will have to pay compensation in the amount of 10 thousand euros to each of the victims.

As an additional penalty, he is prohibited from engaging in professional activities or any activity involving contact with minors, as well as from accepting the trust of minors, in both cases for a period of seven years.

The prosecutor’s office accused the defendant of a total of 312 crimes related to sexual abuse of children, but the court found only 58 crimes proven.

Both girls had previously been sexually abused by the partner of the accused’s mother, who was convicted in 2015 by the Vila Nova de Famalicão court.