A scandal concerning the abuse of children in care homes has led to the arrest of several members of Portugal’s social and political elite.
The allegations are that state-run care homes were a target for wealthy and influential paedophiles whose activities were covered up for decades by successive Portuguese governments.
Once the allegations became public Teresa Costa Macedo, a former Secretary of State for the Family, revealed that she knew about them whilst she was a minister in the early 1980s and that very influential people were involved. In 1982, she claimed she told General Antonio Ramalho Eanes, Portuguese President from 1976-1986, about the allegations.
Costa Macedo warned that Silvino “was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country... It wasn’t just him. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/06/port-j18.html
The allegations are that state-run care homes were a target for wealthy and influential paedophiles whose activities were covered up for decades by successive Portuguese governments.
Once the allegations became public Teresa Costa Macedo, a former Secretary of State for the Family, revealed that she knew about them whilst she was a minister in the early 1980s and that very influential people were involved. In 1982, she claimed she told General Antonio Ramalho Eanes, Portuguese President from 1976-1986, about the allegations.
Costa Macedo warned that Silvino “was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country... It wasn’t just him. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/06/port-j18.html
"The Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal was a case of child sexual abuses involving a number of children and employees at Casa Pia, a Portuguese state-run institution for the education and support of poor children and under-age orphans.
Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária) officials estimate that more than 100 boys and girls of the 4,600 pupils enrolled in Casa Pia at the time, including some deaf and mute, may have been sexually abused throughout several decades.
The trial is one of the longest-running in Portuguese history, lasting more than five years, with testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts
Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária) first accused the caretaker of a Casa Pia state-run children's home in 1981 of raping dozens of children over a period of 30 years, even though some reports of abuse pre-date the 1974 Carnation Revolution.
Police accused the perpetrators of supplying children to men from Portugal and other countries, including to some prominent public figures in Portugal.
The scandal of alleged sexual abuse at the state-run Casa Pia orphanages resurfaced when several former orphanage children came forward with accusations of abuse. The accusations linked some politicians, diplomats, and media celebrities—all of whom were alleged to have conspired in a pedophilia ring that had operated for decades.
The scandal broke in September 2002 when the mother of one alleged victim, known as Joel, complained of abuse by staff at a Casa Pia house.
Former Casa Pia children came forward to publicly accuse several personnel of sexual abuse. The weekly magazine Visão reported that a Portuguese diplomat, Jorge Ritto, was removed from his post as consul in Stuttgart (1969–1971) after German authorities complained to Lisbon about his involvement with an under-age boy in a public park.
Accused were diplomat Jorge Ritto, Carlos Cruz (a famous Portuguese television presenter), Carlos Silvino (a.k.a. Bibi, an employee of Casa Pia and a former pupil in the institution), Ferreira Diniz (a physician from Lisbon), Hugo Marçal (a lawyer who represented Carlos Silvino in the early stages of the process) and among other individuals, a marine archaeologist.
Secretary of State for Labor and Training from 1999 to 2001, Paulo Pedroso, who was responsible for the Casa Pia homes, which care for some 4,600 children at 10 centers around Portugal, was suspected of 15 cases of sexual violence against minors, which allegedly took place between 1999 and 2000. His case was also subsequently dropped.
The Socialist Party leader at the time, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, who was a close personal friend of Paulo Pedroso, offered to undergo police questioning after "he had learned of plans to implicate him in the [Casa Pia] scandal". The weekly paper Expresso published a report on 25 May 2003, from four children who said they saw Ferro Rodrigues at locations where sexual abuse was taking place. ...
Rodrigues has said, "I want it to be clear: our fight will be serene but determined and it is and will only be directed at those who are responsible for this defamation, whatever their objective is."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Pia_child_sexual_abuse_scandal#cite_note-Casa_Pia_Scandal-1
Ferro Rodrigues had lost the case against the victims...
http://www.salteadoresdaarca.com/2009/10/casa-pia-ferro-rodrigues-perde-processo-contra-vitima
"....Carlos Silvino, "Bibi", quis salientar que a Casa Pia lhe "destruiu a vida", "Fui um escravo, eu e muitos. Fomos carne fresca no tempo do Marcelo Caetano, para médicos, juízes e doutores"
Translation
"Carlos Silvino, "Bibi", wanted to point out that the Casa Pia "destroyed his life", "I was a slave, I and many. We were fresh meat at the time of Marcelo Caetano, for doctors, judges and doctors"
http://www.jn.pt/Dossies/dossie.aspx?content_id=1552136&dossier=Julgamento%20Casa%20Pia
