Casa Pia: Silvino claims he saw Cruz at paedophile ‘party’
Updated: 20-Jan-2005
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• Cruz was sworn at outside the courthouse
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Silvino, the 47-year-old former driver for the children’s home, has now admitted to abusing all the victims who have accused him. Previously, he had admitted to abusing only two minors but, last week, he changed his testimony. “All the allegations about sex, masturbation and oral and anal sex are true,” he conceded.
Silvino refused to answer questions from two defence lawyers in the case. He declined to reply to Pinto Pereira, lawyer for the abused children, and Paulo Sá e Cunha, lawyer for Manuel Abrantes, former director of Casa Pia. But he agreed to answer Joaquim Moreira, Jorge Ritto’s lawyer, and Ricardo Sá Fernandes, Carlos Cruz’s lawyer.
Contradictions in
Bibi’s testimony
Sá Fernandes demanded to know how Silvino knew Carlos Mota, an assistant to Carlos Cruz. Silvino replied that Mota had been procuring youngsters at Casa Pia between 1996 and 1998. Sá Fernandes cross-examined Bibi and claimed he had uncovered several inconsistencies in his testimony. “It is clear that Silvino has no notion of the contradictions he displays,” said the lawyer.
Silvino, who had previously denied seeing any of the defendants at parties in Elvas, now alleges that he saw Carlos Cruz, Carlos Mota, Jorge Ritto, Paulo Pedroso, Hugo Marçal, Gertrudes Nunes, José Camisão and Ferreira Dinis. He claimed that youngsters were forced to have sex and were filmed in the process.
The ex-driver alleged that he had also seen “the gentleman who is not being brought before this court” (Socialist politician Paulo Pedroso), who is currently the subject of an appeal by the Public Ministry and Casa Pia lawyers to formally indict him.
Confronted with a note he allegedly wrote in jail, in which he said that he did not know Carlos Cruz, Silvino said that his former lawyer, Dória Vilar, had forced him to write it. He claimed he only penned the note because his mind was “disturbed” at the time. He also claimed that he had exchanged some words with Carlos Cruz in jail. He said that Cruz had asked him if he knew him, to which Silvino had replied in the affirmative.
But Cruz’s lawyer has a different version of events, alleging that, in this conversation, Bibi had told Carlos Cruz: “They want me to say that I know you, otherwise I get 25 years in jail. But I don’t know you at all.” Carlos Cruz’s defence has requested that Silvino’s current declarations be set against supposedly conflicting accounts he gave during the instructional phase. But the presiding judge deferred a ruling on this issue, saying it was too early.
Ex-TV presenter a ‘novice’
in a ‘film’
Carlos Cruz continues to arouse strong feelings among crowds who gather outside the courthouse. Recently, police had to escort some of the defendants, among them Cruz, away from bystanders who were swearing at them. Cruz, 62, faces six charges – five of sexual abuse of children and one of a homosexual act with an adolescent.
Cruz told reporters he hoped for an early verdict and said he wished to be extricated from what he described as “this film”. He said he was a “novice” when it comes to court cases. “I have no idea how processes run in court,” he said.
He again protested his innocence, describing all the charges against him as “lies”. The former presenter said that, at the beginning of the trial, he had expected people to tell the truth. “I now think this expectation is unrealistic. So now I can only hope that any lies will be exposed,” he said. “If this happens, then justice will prevail.” The trial continues.
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