Portuguese TV presenter found guilty of being in paedophile ring
One of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty today of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages.
The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz and the others exposed the truth of more than three decades of rumours about systematic abuse of young boys at the 230-year-old Casa Pia network of orphanages.
It was only when a former orphanage boy called Joel came forward in 2002 and accused some of the country's best-known names of being involved that Portugal woke up to full horror of the scandal.
Members of Portugal's media, civil service and professional elite were alleged to be regular abusers of the boys, some younger than 14. Even well-known politicians were involved, it was initially rumoured. A flood of accusations from boys who had passed through the Casa Pia system followed. Some 32 boys alleged at least 800 crimes.
The case pitted the orphanage boys against a group of well-educated, influential people – including a former ambassador to Unesco, a lawyer, a doctor and Cruz. Today, eight years after they dared to speak out, the boys finally won their case.
The four men and two former orphanage employees were found guilty. An 18-year sentence went to Carlos Silvino, a 53-year-old Casa Pia worker, who confessed to 600 crimes and gave evidence against other defendants.
"The court recognised that we were telling the truth," said victim Bernardo Teixeira. "It's a happy ending for us. The paedophiles are going to jail."
The court case lasted six years, bringing additional outrage over the slow speed of Portugal's legal system. The case was already in court when the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann made world headlines. Portuguese police were, at the time, defensive about claims, particularly in the British press, that they had a history of mishandling cases involving children.
Buried in the case paperwork are allegations that Casa Pia was known to paedophiles internationally and that some flew in to abuse children from the orphanage, according to at least one source familiar with the case.
Portuguese media provided live running coverage of the reading of the sentence. The judges said they were giving only an abbreviated version of events, with a much fuller judgment due to be made public next week.
The senior member of the three-judge panel, Ana Peres, began by warning those present that the abuse they described would be graphic and shocking. "Some of the accounts could be considered pornographic," she said.
Cruz, 68, who was once voted Portugal's most popular man, had paid for sex with a 14-year-old, the judges declared. He also abused at least one other boy. The father of two was known as "Mr Television" after several decades as a national star.
Former ambassador Jorge Ritto, 74, and a doctor, Ferreira Diniz, were also found guilty of abusing several young boys. The former Casa Pia ombudsman, Manuel Abrantes, also sexually abused the children.
The court found that young boys had been regularly taken to a house in the eastern town of Elvas during the 1990s to meet the paedophile clients. Abuse had also taken place in Lisbon.
Some of the victims who gave evidence were present in court to hear the verdicts. Psychiatrists who have helped the victims said several had tried to kill themselves after denouncing the abuse to the police. One threw himself from a second-floor window.
Lawyers said their clients would almost certainly appeal against any guilty sentences. "It seems inevitable that we will have to appeal," said Cruz's lawyer, Antonio Serra Lopes, before the sentence was read out. "This is the first round."
Comments
European celebrity paedophile ring reminiscent of Cornwall
How perceptions about paedophilia have changed in the past decade, after hundreds of egregious cases have been exposed, often involving Catholic priests and the church.
In 1994, when Cornwall police officer Perry Dunlop gave Children's Aid information about a suspected paedophile ring, his claims, and the claims of the victims, seemed improbable to many people. Critics painted Dunlop and his supporters as tinfoil-hatted conspiracy theorists. The very idea that prominent people and priests could be involved in paedophilia – and a cover-up – seemed far-fetched indeed.
Yet if such claims were made for the first time today, they would seem all too plausible. Even the suggestion that the flawed Cornwall Inquiry was part of a cover-up by the authorities doesn't seem far fetched any more, when we have seen the extraordinary efforts made to cover up other similar cases.
David Hutton