The defendant, now 48 years old and in preventive detention, was tried behind closed doors at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, on the Campus of Justice, but the ruling was read in the open, as required by law.

The prosecution of the Public Ministry (MP) involved 2,772 crimes of pornography of minors, 70 of recourse to prostitution of minors and 33 of sexual abuse of children.

According to the prosecution, in the summer of 2014, “through a mutual friend, who introduced him as a person who liked to help families in need”, the defendant met the mother of two children, who were 6 and 15 years old at the time.

The man started going to the woman's house and approached the children, with whom he practiced sexual acts.

The prosecution also says that the defendant, also since 2014, has accessed, disseminated and shared thousands of image and video files with sexual abuse of children through the 'darknet' (network closed to a private group of people), in which he created and used several identities.