Court reduces sentence for father who attacked 10-year-old daughter with wooden racket
A parent had their penalty reduced to a 150-euro fine after breaking a racket on the back of his underage daughter in Évora.
Court reduces sentence for father who attacked 10-year-old daughter with wooden racket
A parent had their penalty reduced to a 150-euro fine after breaking a racket on the back of his underage daughter in Évora. The child, aged ten, had allegedly refused to greet the woman with whom the father lived.
The final decision represented a drastic reduction compared with the original conviction, which had provided for four months of deprivation of liberty, later transformed into a fine of 960 euros. An appeal lodged by the defendant led judges in the district of Évora to reclassify the incident as simple assault on the victim's physical integrity.
According to the Jornal de Notícias, cited by the Correio da Manhã, the public prosecutor had formulated an accusation against the man. He, however, requested that preliminary hearing proceedings be held, a request which the Court of Appeal of Évora accepted. The magistrates concluded that there were insufficient indications to constitute a criminal offence, framing the conduct as mere "parental reprimand".
The first-instance sentence in Évora added that, although the instrument used may raise questions, grave criminal liability was not established. The panel of judges further highlighted the alleged absence of physical suffering on the part of the child.
At an earlier stage of the proceedings, the Public Prosecutor's Office had warned that the use of physical violence against minors has been prohibited in Portugal since 2007, constituting an infraction punishable under the Penal Code.
Source: Correio da Manhã