Party chief called to testify in Lisbon child sex scandal
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid04 June 2003 http://www.independent.co.uk/
Portugal's Socialist Party leader is expected to appear in court in Lisbon today to testify in a child sex scandal that has ripped through the political and showbusiness elite.
The case has shocked the nation and shattered public confidence in politicians and the legal system in one of the worst crises for the country since the 1974 Carnation revolution.
Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues is the latest and most senior in a stream of politicians, diplomats and television talkshow hosts to be implicated in a paedophile ring said to have preyed for decades on boys in a state-run orphanage.
Mr Rodrigues is likely to be asked whether he covered up illicit activities: he is not suspected of participating in them. But his influential deputy, the former Labour minister Paulo Pedroso, was detained last month over accusations of15 counts of child sex abuse.
Public opinion has been shaken by allegations that police and other authorities allowed powerful clients to abuse the boys sexually and prostitute them, and did nothing to stop them for 30 years.
Several former inmates of the Casa Pia boys' home in Lisbon have described the sexual abuse they received in the 1970s and 1980s. An official report said that among the children still living at Casa Pia, at least 128 had been subjected to sexual abuse. Many are deaf and dumb.
Mr Pedroso, 38, is accused of committing offences in the late 1990s. He resigned his party responsibilities before he was detained on 22 May and stepped down as an MP last Thursday.
On Friday the comedian and television chatshow host Herman Jose was questioned. He was released pending further inquiries, and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
Seven people have been detained during court investigations that began last autumn. The chief suspect is the former orphanage employee Carlos Silvino, known as Bibi, who is accused of raping the children in his care and procuring minors for prostitution. Mr Silvino, himself a Casa Pia product, was denounced to police by a former inmate. He denies wrongdoing.
Investigating journalists, helped by two former inmates now in their thirties, reported that "Bibi" had abused children for 30 years while working for Casa Pia. Former inmates said he was protected by public figures who used him as an intermediary to obtain boys for them. One former inmate, Pedro Namora, a lawyer, says he has received death threats for spilling the beans.
The best-known detainee is Carlos Cruz, Portugal's most famous television presenter, and a friend of Mr Jose. Also in jail are: Hugo Marcal, Mr Silvino's former lawyer; Joao Ferreira Diniz, a doctor at the institution; Manuel Abrantes, the former director; and Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador to Unesco. All are accused of child abuse.
The former secretary of state for families told parliament last December that Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the former president, Jaime Gama, the former foreign secretary, and the police all knew of the abuse. Teresa Costa Macedo said state television had filmed six boys who told Mr Eanes about the abuse, but had not broadcast the footage.
Ms Costa Macedo said she sent testimonies and photographs to the police 20 years ago, but they did nothing. Police at first denied her reports existed, then produced them.
Casa Pia still had "the atmosphere of a terror movie", Catalina Pestana, who became director last November, said recently. "There are other people involved, but the children don't know their names. They only know their faces, and call them 'Mr Doctor' or 'Mr Engineer'."
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Barroso bombed-off to Bilderberg meeting?
31/05/2003
Had it not been for a bomb scare on Saturday May 17th at an official function following the WTTC summit at the Casino Vilamoura, the Prime Minister would have had to explain why he was in Paris attending the annual meeting of the secretive geopolitical Bilderberg Group, instead of the tourism summit's closing ceremony.
An investigative journalist working on behalf of The Portugal News has obtained a list of the attendees at the Paris meeting, which was held at the Trianon Hotel between the 15th and 18th of May. Dur'o Barroso was in the company of former Prime Minister, Francisco Balsem'o, who is presently chairman and chief executive officer of Impresa Corporation. Also in tow was Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, leader of the opposition Socialist Party. The opposition leader's press officer told The Portugal News that Mr. Rodrigues attended the conference for three and a half days.
Mr. Rodrigues is currently fighting off a paedophile scandal, following the arrest of Socialist MP Paulo Pedroso and claims, in some newspapers that the PS leader has also been accused of limited involvement.
The Bilderberg Group is made up of international bankers, industrialists, media moguls and politicians, who are accused of meeting annually, in secret, to map out the future of the world.
Among this year's gathering were James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, David Rockefeller of banking fame, and former French president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who is presently chairman of the European Convention in charge of drawing up the first ever EU Constitution.
The Portugal News can confirm that at the top of the meeting's agenda were EU-USA relationships regarding the post war reconstruction of Iraq and its political make-up, the future of the Middle East and the formation of a European army. The proposed new EU Constitution and global economic problems also figured prominently in the discussions.
Among the 105 guests were several EU ministers and their advisers. In a repeat of last year's row, Irish MEP, Patricia McKenna, has demanded that the EU Commission President, Romani Prodi, gives a full and frank account to the European Parliament as to why it is necessary for commissioners to attend Bilderberg meetings. According to Mr. Prodi they do so as private individuals and it is therefore not required that they make any public declaration of their attendance. He also dismissed critics of the Bilderberg Group as being 'paranoid conspiracy theorists'.
But according to Tony Gaia, an independent UK journalist, who has covered the Bilderberg meetings for the past 20 years, the annual get-togethers are all about the 'Money Power' handing out instructions to the political classes. He told The Portugal News that world events do not occur by accident: 'They are made to happen', he said 'whether it is to do with national issues or commerce, most of it is staged managed by those who hold the purse strings'.
Although it has been acknowledged by the Bilderberg Group's Belgium headquarters that Mr. Barroso did attend the May 15th - 18th meeting, along with the press officer of PS leader Ferro Rodrigues, the Prime Minister's press office was unable to comment when contacted by The Portugal News.
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Ex-Minister held in child sex ring case
Eduardo Gonsalves in Lisbon
Sunday May 25, 2003
The Observer
Portugal's spiralling paedophilia scandal has threatened to engulf the nation's elite after the arrest of a top politician and a warning from judges that the arrests of more MPs could be imminent.
Socialist politicians have claimed they are part of a witch-hunt after the arrest of their official spokesman, Paulo Pedroso, on 15 charges of sexual abuse of minors following a phone-tapping operation by police.
The trial of a top TV presenter, a former ambassador and a leading children's health expert on similar charges is expected to start soon.
The country's Attorney-General denied that Socialist Party leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues was suspected of any involvement in the child abuse ring alleged to include senior members of the Portuguese establishment. Rodrigues, a government Minister until last year, had earlier revealed that his name was included in the documents which led to the arrest of his party spokesman.
However, the judge leading the investigation, Rui Teixeira, has told the Speaker of Portugal's parliament, Mota Amaral, that there are other paedophile cases allegedly involving politicians currently under investigation.
The scandal first erupted in February when a former pupil at a leading Lisbon children's home launched a legal action against a social worker nick-named 'Bibi', allegedly at the centre of a child-for-sex procurement ring involving leading politicians and media figures.
The case was brought after 20 years of complaints to the police by children at the home about systematic sexual abuse and beatings at the hands of carers failed to bring a single prosecution.
It is claimed that children from the home were picked out and then flown to the holiday homes of influential fig ures where they were repeatedly abused. A former Social Security Minister, Teresa Costa Macedo, backed their claims by saying that a paedophile ring operated from within the children's home. Other victims have since come forward following the shock arrest of Carlos Cruz, one of the country's top television entertainers.
The arrest of Pedroso is the first of a politician during the investigation. It follows the testimony of two 14-year-old boys who identified the 38-year-old divorce from photographs and claimed that they were taken to a country home in Elvas, near the Spanish border, on several occasions during 1999 and 2000 while Pedroso was still a Minister.
The former Social Security Minister was remanded in custody at dawn on Thursday morning after 13 hours of interrogation, charged on 15 counts of sexual abuse.
The former Socialist leader and Prime Minister, Antonio Guterres, a close friend of Tony Blair, has promised to testify in Pedroso's favour.
The present Prime Minister, Jose Manuel Dureo Barroso, said: 'The judicial system in Portugal is completely independent. What I hope is that it does its job.'
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Portugal reeling over child sex abuse scandal
By Elizabeth Nash in Lisbon
16 June 2003
The opposition socialists, until now ahead of Portugal's ruling conservative Popular Social Democrats in opinion polls, are in shock after learning some of their senior MPs may be involved in scandal over sex abuse of boys in a state orphanage.The senior socialist MP Paulo Pedroso, number two in the party and a former labour minister, was taken from parliament by police and held for investigation three weeks ago on 15 counts of suspected child-sex abuse. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, the party leader, who is not accused of involvement, testified in court last week, and the former prime minister Antonio Guterres, who is also not under suspicion, visited him in jail to show support.
The abuse accusations centre on Casa Pia, an austere building in a leafy Lisbon neighbourhood, home to children without families, or with parents too poor to care for them. Claims that boys suffered decades of sexual abuse while the authorities did nothing has thrown Portugal into deep shock.
"This is a black moment for us," the veteran commentator Mario Mesquita, a columnist for Publico newspaper, says. "It marks the beginning of a long crisis that's poisoning political life and undermining confidence in our leaders. People were at first incredulous, and are now morbidly pessimistic. This drama shows our dark side, and it's all played out on television, which whips up the frenzy."
Antonio Mega Ferreira, editor of Visao news magazine, says: "I cannot recall, during 25 years of democracy, experiencing such a turbulent, fragile, demoralising, anxious time as we're going through now."
A former home employee, Carlos Silvino, known as Bibi, was detained last autumn accused of abusing children in his care and supplying them for sex to socialites. Among those held on suspicion of abuse are Casa Pia's former director, its doctor, Portugal's favourite television host, a top comedian and a senior diplomat.
Proceedings are still in the investigative stage, with seven suspects detained. More detentions are expected before the trial in September. Adolescents have claimed on television they were offered sweets, ice creams and visits to football matches, then were raped in lavatories or corridors, and recruited for sex parties with powerful "friends". Others, now adult, have told of chilling experiences long suppressed.
Casa Pia came under scrutiny 20 years ago when a young inmate died. He apparently threw himself under a train after running from a car. Officials found the home's doors open all night and youngsters in a cruising area for male prostitutes.
Four children aged between eight and 12, missing for a fortnight, were found in a luxury flat in nearby Cascais owned by a diplomat. They said Mr Silvino had taken them there.
Teresa Costa Macedo, who was the Secretary of State for Family Affairs at the time, ordered a legal investigation that dragged on until it was finally shelved. Mr Silvino was expelled from Casa Pia, then reinstated with back pay in the Nineties.
Rosa Ruela, of Visao, says: "Orphans were considered worthless in Portuguese society then. Child sex abuse was a minor offence, comparable to joyriding. The children were frightened and alone, an easy target. No one took notice of what they said."
Only in the Nineties did Portugal make sex with under-14s a crime punishable by jail; for minors between 14 and 16 the penalty remains a fine. Last September, the mother of an inmate accused Mr Silvino of sexually abusing her son. He was detained in November but insists he is innocent. Last week he indicated he might turn state witness and implicate influential "friends".
In February, counsellors who questioned more than 600 children in Casa Pia found 128 had been abused.
Pedro Strecht, a child psychologist, said "Many wouldn't speak, for fear or shame. We are trained to recognise if children are exaggerating or inventing stories. The testimonies we have heard demonstrate the magnitude of the tragedy."
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Portugal's elite linked to paedophile ring
Abuse was reportedly going on at Lisbon orphanage for 20 years
A scandal over a paedophile ring run from a state orphanage gripped Portugal yesterday as it threatened to engulf diplomats, media personalities and senior politicians.Photographs of unnamed senior government officials with young boys from Lisbon's Casa Pia orphanage were among the evidence reportedly available to police after they arrested a former orphanage employee called Carlos Silvino.
A number of former residents, and the mother of one boy who is still there, have denounced sexual attacks on children at what is known as Lisbon's most famous orphanage.
Mr Silvino, it was claimed, abused children himself and procured boys for a powerful group of clients.
He has publicly denied the allegations and was expected to repeat that denial at a closed-door bail hearing in Lisbon yesterday.
What has most shocked the Portuguese have been the revelations that systematic sexual abuse of children at the home had allegedly been going on for more than 20 years and had been known to police and other authorities for most of that time.
A former president, General Ramalho Eanes, was allegedly among those who knew about abuse at the home but failed to stop it.
The identity of the mysterious group of powerful paedophiles remained a secret yesterday, with only one person prepared to admit she knew at least some of the names.
Former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, said she had sent a dossier containing photographs and testimonies from children to the police 20 years ago but they had done nothing about it, while she was subjected to a campaign of threats.
"He [Silvino] was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country," Mrs Costa Macedo explained in a newspaper interview. "It wasn't just him. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media."
The material sent to the police, which yesterday appeared to have been lost, was damning proof of the activities of the paedophile ring, Mrs Costa Macedo said.
"There are photographs, an account of the methods used to spirit children out of the orphanage and testimonies of a number of children," she explained.
Mrs Costa Macedo said that many of the photographs were found at the house of a Portuguese diplomat in the town of Estoril, 20 miles from Lisbon. Four children who had gone missing from the orphanage were discovered at the house, where they had spent several days allegedly under lock and key.
President Eanes was introduced to five boys who told him of the abuse occurring at the orphanage in 1980 but failed to act on it, according to Mrs Costa Macedo.
There was no suggestion that General Eanes, a popular and respected figure who did not comment on the allegations yesterday, was involved in the paedophile ring.
Portuguese police insisted yesterday they had no record of the documents sent to them by Mrs Costa Macedo.
She said she had been the target of a campaign of intimidation to make her stop investigating the case.
"I received anonymous threats, by phone and post. They said they would kill me, flay me and a lot of other things," she said.
That campaign had started again yesterday, she said, with threatening phone calls made to her home.
Portugal has increasingly been under the scrutiny of anti-paedophile groups who have denounced its lax laws and uninterested courts for creating a paedophiles' paradise in Europe.
Belgian and Dutch paedophile groups are reported to have operated in Portugal, with foreigners travelling to the island of Madeira to seek out young children.
Investigators from the Swiss-based Innocence in Danger group, which claims children regularly disappear from the poorer streets of Portuguese towns and cities, say they too have been harassed and threatened.
Mr Silvino claimed his accusers were making up their allegations. "It is all lies," he said.
The orphanage's director and deputy director were sacked on Monday as the government pledged to clear up the case as soon as possible.
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A number of former residents, and the mother of one boy who is still there, have denounced sexual attacks on children at what is known as Lisbon's most famous orphanage.
Mr Silvino, it was claimed, abused children himself and procured boys for a powerful group of clients.
He has publicly denied the allegations and was expected to repeat that denial at a closed-door bail hearing in Lisbon yesterday.
What has most shocked the Portuguese have been the revelations that systematic sexual abuse of children at the home had allegedly been going on for more than 20 years and had been known to police and other authorities for most of that time.
A former president, General Ramalho Eanes, was allegedly among those who knew about abuse at the home but failed to stop it.
The identity of the mysterious group of powerful paedophiles remained a secret yesterday, with only one person prepared to admit she knew at least some of the names.
Former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, said she had sent a dossier containing photographs and testimonies from children to the police 20 years ago but they had done nothing about it, while she was subjected to a campaign of threats.
"He [Silvino] was just one element in a huge paedophile network that involved important people in our country," Mrs Costa Macedo explained in a newspaper interview. "It wasn't just him. He was a procurer of children for well-known people who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media."
The material sent to the police, which yesterday appeared to have been lost, was damning proof of the activities of the paedophile ring, Mrs Costa Macedo said.
"There are photographs, an account of the methods used to spirit children out of the orphanage and testimonies of a number of children," she explained.
Mrs Costa Macedo said that many of the photographs were found at the house of a Portuguese diplomat in the town of Estoril, 20 miles from Lisbon. Four children who had gone missing from the orphanage were discovered at the house, where they had spent several days allegedly under lock and key.
President Eanes was introduced to five boys who told him of the abuse occurring at the orphanage in 1980 but failed to act on it, according to Mrs Costa Macedo.
There was no suggestion that General Eanes, a popular and respected figure who did not comment on the allegations yesterday, was involved in the paedophile ring.
Portuguese police insisted yesterday they had no record of the documents sent to them by Mrs Costa Macedo.
She said she had been the target of a campaign of intimidation to make her stop investigating the case.
"I received anonymous threats, by phone and post. They said they would kill me, flay me and a lot of other things," she said.
That campaign had started again yesterday, she said, with threatening phone calls made to her home.
Portugal has increasingly been under the scrutiny of anti-paedophile groups who have denounced its lax laws and uninterested courts for creating a paedophiles' paradise in Europe.
Belgian and Dutch paedophile groups are reported to have operated in Portugal, with foreigners travelling to the island of Madeira to seek out young children.
Investigators from the Swiss-based Innocence in Danger group, which claims children regularly disappear from the poorer streets of Portuguese towns and cities, say they too have been harassed and threatened.
Mr Silvino claimed his accusers were making up their allegations. "It is all lies," he said.
The orphanage's director and deputy director were sacked on Monday as the government pledged to clear up the case as soon as possible.
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