According to David Luís Tojal, “the first error detected was at 09:06.16” on September 22, 2015, having left Sporting users without access to their respective mailboxes. On the other hand, the former computer technician indicated that “the first attack occurs at 18:55.04” of the same day, that is, almost 10 hours after the “crash”.

The system tried to restart spontaneously about 10 minutes after the disruption, following a long process started by the club’s computer team. “Starting at 09:16, it was almost 48 hours straight trying to solve the problem”, said David Luís Tojal, who, questioned by Judge Margarida Alves if the ‘crash’ was related to the commands allegedly sent by the creator of Football Leaks, ended with answering simply “no”.

The former Sporting computer technician was also unable to find an explanation for the origin of the ‘crash’, having confessed that the computer attacks of that day had no influence on the situation that the club’s email system was experiencing that he can place concerning the crime of computer sabotage attributed by the Public Ministry to Rui Pinto.

“At the time, we had no perception that the attack was taking place. We only returned to the ‘logs’ when Jorge Jesus’s contract for ‘Football Leaks’ came out,”said David Luís Tojal. The former systems administrator also stressed that the club was not properly equipped with specialists and computer security tools and admitted that he did not know “which tool was used to carry out the attack”.

David Luís Tojal’s hearing closed after having also confirmed that accesses were confirmed or missed by an Internet address from Hungary between 22 July and 29 September - without making it clear whether those accesses were related to the disruption on 22 September.

Rui Pinto, 31, is accused of a total of 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 for violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form.

The creator of Football Leaks has been free since 7 August, “due to his collaboration” with the Judiciary Police (PJ) but is, for security reasons, inserted into the witness protection programme in an undisclosed location and under police protection.