Final sentence for a man who stole and kidnapped a taxi driver in Ovar

A court in Aveiro this Wednesday gave a suspended sentence of three and a half years to a man who robbed and kidnapped a taxi driver in Ovar after driving 440 kilometers with the victim in the car for almost seven hours.

During the announcement of the verdict, the presiding judge stated that the court recognized the accusation of the Prosecutor’s Office (MP) as partially proven.

The single punishment arose from the legal cumulative totality of the partial punishments applied to the defendant for the crime of theft and the other crime of kidnapping.

The 27-year-old defendant was also charged with attempted coercion, but he was acquitted of this crime.

In addition to jail time, a man serving a sentence of three years and eight months in prison for kidnapping and robbing another taxi driver who locked himself in the trunk of a taxi while traveling between Lisbon and Porto. , which took place two days before the facts that are now in process, he will have to pay compensation to the victim in the amount of 500 euros.

During the trial, the defendant confessed to most of the facts, specifying only that the weapon used in the crime was an “airsoft” pistol, a weapon used in war simulation games.

He also denied that he had stolen 45 euros from the taxi driver’s wallet, saying that one of his escorts had taken the money.

When asked by the presiding judge about the cause of the crime, he limited himself to saying that he “wanted to leave Porto and wanted to be protected”, claiming that he had been threatened by a friend who went to Lisbon to get a car. who had disappeared in the meantime.

It happened on the night of December 13-14, 2018, when the accused and three other unidentified persons approached a taxi driver in Matosinhos and asked him to take them to Esmores, Ovar municipality.

When they arrived at their destination, one of the detainees pointed a gun at the taxi driver and ordered him to sit in the back seat of the car, while the accused got into the driver’s seat and headed towards Coimbra, where they made a stop in the “drive up” for food before returning to Porto .

As a result, people abandoned the taxi and let the taxi driver go around 4:45 am in Puglia, in Esposenda, in the Braga region.

According to the deputy’s indictment, the defendant and three others traveled 440 kilometers from 22:00 to 04:45 in a taxi, keeping the victim inside the car throughout the trip and always with firearms pointed at him.