Coimbra Court judges 42-year-old man accused of mistreating his parents for more than 20 years – Portugal

The Coimbra Court begins judging on Friday a 42-year-old man accused of mistreating his parents for more than 20 years, with references to aggressive behavior when the defendant was 16 years old.

The defendant’s first episodes of aggressive behavior against his parents began when the son was between 16 and 17 years old and the family lived in France, where the accused was born, according to the indictment to which the Lusa agency had access.

Since the age of 14, the defendant started using drugs, which has always affected his behavior and his relationship with his parents, said the Public Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that, still in France, the young man at the time demanded money from his parents to buy drugs, threatening them, especially his mother, whom he referred to using pejorative terms.

From 2003 onwards, the family moved to the municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova (district of Coimbra), with several episodes of violence reported in the indictment, in which the defendant would demand “his share of the inheritance”, having as He threatened to kill his parents and set the house on fire several times.

On one of these occasions, in 2004, he attacked his father and pushed his mother to the floor, who, allegedly, fell unconscious from the shock.

The defendant’s mother’s sister, who lived on the top floor of the residence, ended up moving house, out of fear for herself and her family, at the time with two children around five years old.

The defendant’s parents also rented another house in the same municipality, where their son could live, out of fear of the threats he made, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

However, after a few months, the defendant returned to his parents’ house, and the episodes of violence also returned, which occurred at least “once a week”.

In one of the arguments, which took place more than 12 years ago, the parents ended up fleeing their home to a family member’s home, afraid that their son would kill them, alleges the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Subsequently, the defendant suffered two sentences of effective imprisonment, which he served between 2017 and 2023, maintaining, even in prison, the ascendant over his parents, demanding that they transfer money to him, saying that, if this did not happen, he would have him killed. them, the indictment reads.

Returning home in 2023, on parole, the defendant again mistreated his parents, having also threatened a neighbor and a relative.

At the end of April 2023, the defendant reportedly said that he would cut his parents “to bits”, having even closed off access to the house for his parents.

At that time, the GNR was called and managed to remove the defendant from the residence.

According to the prosecution, both the defendant’s father and mother have several health problems and mobility difficulties.

In the process, it is requested that the defendant be removed from the courtroom when the parents are called to testify.

The defendant is accused of two crimes of domestic violence, one crime of aggravated threat and one crime of aggravated coercion.