Student given four years and six months suspended sentence for assaulting colleague in Coimbra

A law student at the University of Coimbra was sentenced this Friday by a court to four years and six months of suspended imprisonment for the abuse of a colleague following a “peddy-tascas” in 2021.

The Coimbra court sentenced the young man to four years and six months in prison, suspended for five years, and ordered him to pay 20,000 euros in compensation to the victim.

The defendant was accused of raping a colleague after they joined “peddy-tascas” in Coimbra (an initiative in which students visit cafes, bars and taverns, drinking alcoholic drinks along the way), taking advantage of the victim’s drunken state.

Although the young man claimed during his trial that the interaction was “completely normal” and consensual, the jury found his claims “unlikely” given the evidence presented.

The president of the collective recalled that the young woman’s blood alcohol level was recorded at 1.02 g/l six to seven hours after the crime and that witnesses stated that the young woman was staggering, recalling that the defendant himself admitted that it was likely that the victim had allegedly abused alcohol.

The victim’s injuries also indicate, according to the forensic medical examination, the possibility of sexual violence on the part of the defendant, whose genetic material was found in the young woman, as well as in her torn underwear and tights, the court noted.

Despite the young woman’s memory lapses, the team assessed her testimony, which they considered emotional and sincere, and concluded that this was not a sexual relationship in which they both freely participated, citing as evidence that the young woman, when insulted, said “no” and the accused merely asked her to “calm down.”

The panel of judges also criticized the defendant for “referring to the normality of what happened,” expressing “a clear lack of understanding of the process,” and even presenting himself as a “victim” of the process, noting that the young man had not expressed any empathy for the victim, “even after watching her emotional statements.”

However, when deciding whether the offence (punishable by between two and ten years’ imprisonment) should result in an effective or suspended prison sentence, the panel of judges highly valued the fact that the young man was socially integrated and had no criminal record, believing that the threat of arrest should be sufficient.

“The suspension of the sentence is not a blanket that cancels the responsibility of the accused, but only because the court believes that he has enough critical consciousness left to adapt his behavior. This does not cancel what he did in the past, but it also does not cancel that he does not correspond to the conditions within himself and around himself so that he could break through,” the president of the collective noted.

The judge also stressed that “the courts are not used to destroy people’s lives.”

“The time for punishment for punishment’s sake is long past and the court does not apply sentences to satisfy a sense of revenge, although it recognizes the sensitivity and protection that every victim deserves, especially in such crimes. The court hopes that in view of this – and you are very young – you will take responsibility as a man, as a citizen and realize what you have done,” he said, addressing the young man, admitting that it was one of the longest readings he had done, given the sensitive issues that the trial itself raises.