Alleged sexual predator “terrifies” child witness

An 11-year-old boy who is thought to have been abused over 100 times by his sports teacher, collapsed moments before giving his testimony in court in Lisbon last week.
The child began feeling unwell and had to be hospitalised, reports national tabloid Correio da Manhã.
Judges have agreed to reconvene the hearing, but this time without the presence in the same room of 34-year-old defendant José Carlos Veríssimo.
It is not the first time the former sports teacher’s presence has intimidated youngsters he is alleged to have abused, writes CM.
Others caught up in the scandal have been incapable of speaking when their former teacher has been in the same room.
The case that has shocked the nation hit the headlines last summer when CM revealed magistrates were busy hearing children’s testimonies for “future memory”, to avoid the need for them to attend the full-blown trial that is due to follow.
CM claims Veríssimo abused hundreds of children, but only nine so far have been prepared to press charges.
Nonetheless, this small number alleges up to 435 separate incidents of abuse – and last week’s 11-year-old is believed to be one of the principal victims.
The public prosecutor claims he was sexually assaulted on more than 100 occasions when Veríssimo was teaching at the Escola Eurico Gonçalves in Lisbon.
Describing Veríssimo as “a sexual predator who found victims everywhere he worked”, the public prosecutor maintains the man also abused children in his hometown of Marco de Canaveses, near Porto, and in Madeira, where he worked at a centre for the disabled.
But the teacher and football coach is reported to have denied all the allegations, maintaining that the children “confused his manifestations of affection for sex acts”.
According to CM, Veríssimo’s lawyer has requested a jury be called “to help judges deliberate” on the case, and this has been accepted – although a trial date has yet to be set.
Meantime, CM writes that children’s statements taken by police are to stand as evidence, to save them the horror of being “re-exposed to the pressure of memories”.