Thirteen-year-old runaway Filipa Lourenço – reunited this week with her parents – was persuaded to leave home by a sexual predator more than twice her age.
The grim details of what happened to the schoolgirl are now emerging, as the 33-year-old man with whom she has been living for three weeks in Lisbon is now due to face sex abuse charges.
Filipa met the man via social media, explains Correio da Manhã.
At first she told him she was 18, then she lowered her age to 15 – but it is clear the man knew he was dealing with a minor when Filipa agreed to meet him on February 15 and go AWOL from her home in Corroios.
According to CM it was the pressure of media publicity about the hunt to find her that led the man to “put her out of the house”.
Tired and hungry, Filipa used a conversation app to contact a friend and police swooped into action.
PJ detectives had been monitoring all devices for weeks, trying to find anything that would lead them to Filipa’s whereabouts.
Her phone had been turned off since February 15, writes CM, but activation of the app alerted the PJ and they were waiting for her at Sete Rios bus station, where she had told her friend to meet her.
Since going missing, Filipa had been in touch with her parents once, to tell them she was fine and not coming home, adds CM.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
