A 50-year-old primary school teacher was arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) following an investigation that, in recent weeks, found evidence of 2,000 crimes of sexual abuse of children, most of them aggravated, committed “in a classroom context”. The PJ admits, however, that the total number of crimes committed by the teacher could be much higher, preparing to expand the scope of the operation which, for now, has focused on acts carried out in the last seven years.
The teacher in question teaches in the 1st cycle at the Gonçalo Sampaio School Group, in Póvoa de Lanhoso. The oldest cases of alleged sexual abuse against its students – children aged 6 to 9, according to the PJ – date back to the 2017/18 academic year.
It was at this point that the now detained teacher taught the students from whom the complaint was made. The students, now teenagers and attending Póvoa de Lanhoso Secondary School, the other school group in the municipality, told their older colleagues about the situation they experienced.
At issue are sexual comments and innuendos, but also inappropriate touching of the children he worked with, many of them in a classroom context. It was these older students who brought the situation to the attention of the secondary school management, who reported it to the PJ.
The investigation began a few weeks ago and produced results “in record time”, says a source close to the investigation. The complaint was made “very recently”, a source from the management of the Póvoa de Lanhoso Secondary School confirms to PÚBLICO.
So far, it has not been possible to contact the management of the Gonçalo Sampaio School Group, where the detained teacher taught.
The priority of the investigation was to collect evidence that would lead to the teacher’s arrest, interrupting the danger of criminal activity against minors, focusing on the last seven years and the school where he most recently worked.
The investigation will be expanded in time and space. The teacher has been teaching in Póvoa de Lanhoso for around a decade, but previously he had worked at schools in Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Barcelos and Amares. “For this reason, the real extent of his criminal activity is still unknown”, says the Judiciary, in a statement, admitting that the real number of crimes committed by this teacher could be much higher than the 2 thousand that have so far been investigated.
“Of what has been possible to investigate so far, 2 thousand crimes of sexual abuse of children, most of them aggravated, and also at least one crime of pornography of minors”, says in a statement the PJ, which is investigating the case through the Department of Braga Criminal Investigation. The evidence collected allowed the teacher to be arrested this Tuesday.
The teacher was taken to the Braga Judicial Court this Wednesday, but ended up not being present for the first judicial interrogation and application of coercive measures, due to the strike by judicial employees. He will return to court this Thursday.
According to the Judiciary, searches were also carried out at the EB 1 school where the teacher in question taught, following which “some objects that may be related to the commission of the aforementioned crimes were located and seized”.
