At an extremely delicate juncture for Portugal’s far-right party CHEGA (its leader is running for President of the Republic, and a former MP – already charged with stealing people’s luggage from airport carousels – is suspected of having attended a neo-nazi get-together) former CHEGA councillor in Lisbon, Nuno Pardal Ribeiro, begins his trial for the alleged prostitution of minors.
Explain reports, public prosecutors are seeking to see Pardal Ribeiro prohibited from holding public or private functions in future that involve contact with minors.
This is a case that was widely aired in 2023: Pardal Ribeiro is understood to have made contact with a teenage boy over the Grindr social network, and agreed to meet with him. The pair then allegedly drove to a ‘pine forest’ where the minor performed oral sex on the then councillor, in exchange for €20.
The situation only came to light because the teenager’s parents discovered text messages on their son’s phone and challenged him over what had been going on. At the time, it is understood, Pardal Ribeiro had been in touch with the minor over a possible second meeting.
The teenager is an ‘assistant in the case’ that has now begun in Cascais court.
Public prosecutors are arguing that Pardal Ribeiro knew full well that the teenager was ‘under-age’. It has been suggested that the former councillor will be refuting this.
The case (bizarrely) also involves another ‘suspect’, equally charged with child prostitution (of the same minor), who found himself all over the nation’s pages in 2017 when he landed a light plane with engine trouble on a crowded beach in São João da Caparica, killing two people (one of them an eight year old child).
The case dragged through the courts for some years before the former pilot was eventually found guilty of negligent homicide.
Source: SIC
