Evora court acquits all defendants in Alandroal home abuse case

This Thursday, the Court of Evora acquitted eight current and former employees of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (SCM) in Alandroal, the institution and its provider, who were accused of mistreating a user who ultimately died.

In reading the decision, the president of the group that heard the case, Celeste Mendonça, justified the acquittal by saying that the court was unable to determine when the wounds appeared, whether any of the employees saw them, or who was responsible for treating them.

It has also not been proven that the wounds on the elderly woman’s body caused her death, the magistrate said, recalling that an autopsy was not carried out.

The Prosecutor’s Office (PO) charged each of the 10 defendants in the case with committing a crime involving cruel treatment, aggravated by the fact.

According to the prosecution, the case dates back to December 2014, when the 83-year-old user was found to have “multiple bedsores” on his body after he was transferred from an SCM home in Alandroal to another in Vendas Novas, also in the Évora region.

The ulcer in her right thigh area did not heal and almost two months after the move, the user was taken to the Evora hospital with vomiting, fever and prostration and died at 01:00 the next day, due to widespread infection.

Leaving court, SCM de Alandroal lawyer Valentim Rodrigues told reporters that the decision “pays tribute to the institution, the members of the administrative board and its employees after 10 years.”

“It took some time, but justice was done,” he said, noting that at first glance the decision seemed “perfect.”

Valentim Rodrigues stressed that in this case “there was a charge of cruelty through negligence, which is a crime that is not included in the Criminal Code.”

“Cruelty has to be intentional,” he said.

When asked by the Lusa agency about the deputy’s work, the lawyer refused to answer.

As for whether the case had damaged SCM’s image in Alandroal, the lawyer answered in the affirmative, hoping that the acquittal would have “the same reach” as news “reporting something that is not true.”

Also, lawyer Domingos Madruga, who defends one of the accused former employees, emphasized to journalists that he “expects nothing but acquittal” for his constituent.

“But I am also extremely glad that they were all acquitted, because, in fact, it seems to me that if a crime had taken place, it would not have been in the VSM house in Alandroal,” he stressed.

In his opinion, “this accusation was mortally wounded from the moment it was made” because it was “very poorly done” and the MP did a “terrible job”.