A case – all the more surprising for the fact that it involves a man who called for chemical castration for child sex abusers – has ended with the man, a former CHEGA councillor in Lisbon, condemned for the prostitution of a minor.
Nuno Pardal Ribeiro was found guilty of two crimes of child prostitution – one consummated, the other attempted – and handed a 15-month jail sentence – suspended on the payment of €1,200 by way of compensation.
According to Expresso, the judge hearing the case suspended Ribeiro’s jail term because she considered it had not been proved that he knew his victim was 15-years-old at the time – although he must have known he ‘could not have been more than 16 or 17’.
This unsettling case also involved a second suspect, Carlos Conde Ribeiro (the pilot of a bi-plane that landed on a crowded beach, killing two people). Conde Ribeiro is proof that the system allows repeated suspended sentences. His first for negligent homicide (four years) was suspended, and this latest one, for child prostitution (18 months) has also been suspended – again on the payment of €1,200 by way of compensation.
SIC Notícias has gone over this bizarre story, recalling that initially Nuno Pardal Ribeiro claimed his innocence, although this was fairly quickly dispelled by ‘the evidence’.
The story centres on a 15-year-old, active on the gay dating app Grindr, whose parents discovered what was happening through accessing his mobile phone.
The parents alerted police, who ‘did the rest’: rapidly learning the identities of men who had been taking advantage of the boy’s availability.
What makes the situation particularly disturbing is the fact that in Pardal Ribeiro’s case, it involved a local politician who had, publicly, endorsed his then party’s approval for the chemical castration of child sex abusers, while privately paying a teenager €20 for oral sex in a wooded area of Cascais.
Prosecutor Manuel dos Santos of DIAP (the department of investigation and penal action) told Expresso that, in his opinion, Pardal Ribeiro “knew his victim was 15 years old, and sexually inexperienced”.
As for the lawyer representing the family of the victim, he has told Expresso that he sees the crimes practised by Pardal Ribeiro and Conde Ribeiro (no apparent blood connection) as “serious”, and the message that should be passed to society is that “they cannot be punished with suspended sentences”.
But, this is what has happened.
Expresso adds that Nuno Pardal Ribeiro has been expelled by CHEGA for a period of seven years. A former bullfighter, he has also had to resign his position as president of the national association of bullfighters, says the paper.
