Six men and one woman have been found guilty of sexually abusing children at Lisbon’s Casa Pia children’s homes. It is the longest running legal case in Portugal’s history and lasted nearly six years.

Five of the victims were in the courtroom to hear judges Lopes Barata and Ester Santos read out “facts considered proven.”

Raped

The abuse at the state-run orphanages began in the mid-1970s but was not discovered until 2002 when a boy at the home admitted that he had been raped.

During the trial 32 young men, who are now aged between 16 and 22 years old, told how they were raped by adults in dark cellars, cars and secluded houses. A former driver and gardener at the home, Carlos Silvino, was found guilty of abusing several under-aged boys in the orphanage garage and then giving them money. Other defendants include former TV presenter Carlos Cruz and former ambassador Jorge Ritto.

Pedro Namora, a former pupil at Casa Pia and now a lawyer, told reporters,
"These men have to be condemned, they committed barbarous crimes against humanity."

Slow process

Critics say the trial has shown up the slowness and inefficiency of Portuguese courts, especially in handling a trial on this scale -- 920 witnesses were heard in 460 court sessions.