The judge is accused of paying 25 euros for sexual acts with minors from problematic family and social contexts. The initial suspicions were raised in 2003, in a process known as “Casa Pia dos Açores”.
According to an investigation by , retired judge advisor Manuel Mota Botelho will be tried for 16 crimes of resort to prostitution of minors.
Described by the television station as “one of the most secret processes” it has ever investigated, the case relates to crimes that allegedly occurred between 2019 and 2023, in São Miguel, in the Azores. In total, there will be six victims who will have received payments of 25 euros for sexual acts.
The Public Prosecutor’s indictment states that the victims were generally “boys with family integration problemssocial and academic, poverty and drug addiction” and that the judge approached them in public “flirting them with flattering words or giving them small amounts of money.”
Judge advisor Leonor Furtado, who handled the case, validated all the evidence in the investigation phase and considers that the defendant “performed serious acts with the intention of satisfying his sexual appetites” being fully aware of the young people’s age.
The suspicions surrounding the judge are not recent. SIC adds that a document from 2003, referring to a process known as “Casa Pia dos Açores“, already included allegations of sexual crimes with minors against Manuel Mota Botelho, who at the time was a prosecutor.
The judge’s most recent investigation was opened following a listening to “Farfalha” cell phonethe main defendant in this 2003 case, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for various sexual abuse crimes.
Questioned by SIC, Manuel Mota Botelho’s defense rejects all accusations. “The decision presents errors of fact and law. It imputes alleged crimes that the alleged victims themselves deny and is based on statements whose recordings either did not exist or are not in the process. The court will make Justice acquit”, he says.
