// Paulo Abreu dos Santos / LinkedIn; Mário Cruz / Lusa
Paulo Abreu dos Santos, former deputy to former Minister of Justice Catarina Sarmento e Castro.
The former deputy of the former Minister of Justice Catarina Sarmento e Castro, Paulo Abreu dos Santos, confessed that he abused two 10-year-old male children. He is accused of more than 500 crimes of pornography of minors and two of child sexual abuse.
on Saturday and was remanded in pre-trial detention on suspicion of hundreds of crimes of child pornography and child sexual abuse. He is accused of more than 500 crimes of pornography of minors and two of sexual abuse of children, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) explained this Tuesday.
He states that, during interrogation, the former deputy of the former Minister of Justice, between 2023 and 2024, confessed to having “only” abused two 10 year old boys.
The morning newspaper also reveals that the lawyer guaranteed that the remaining images he had, he guarantees, are images shared by other pedophiles, but which were not made by you. The lawyer was in more than a dozen groups associated with pedophilia, including the social network Signal.
In research (international in scope), the FBI noticed that one of the IP belonged to Ministry of Justice. This is because Paulo Abreu dos Santos saw pedophile content from his office. The other IP detected was that of the lawyer’s residence.
The PJ suspects that the raped children were children of friends of the defendant.
O former assistant to Catarina Sarmento e Castro (former Minister of Justice of the Socialist Government) acted without his parents’ knowledgetaking advantage of the close relationship.
According to the CM, sex content with adult men was also caught which were obtained without their consent.
Paulo Abreu dos Santos was an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Lisbon, who already reacted and suspended the lawyer: “In view of the existing situation, which caused deep consternation in the academic communitydecided suspend your public employment relationship with the college.”
PAN asks for hearings in Government PCs
The PAN requested, as a matter of urgency, hearings in Parliament on the “crime prevention, detection and reporting mechanisms” of pornography of minors on computers belonging to ministry offices.
The only PAN deputy, Inês de Sousa Realrequested that the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees hold hearings.
A source linked to the investigation told Lusa today that the alert was given by the FBI, the federal police of the United States of America, and that one of the IP (address that identifies Internet access) flagged was that of the Ministry of Justice and another that of the lawyer’s residence.
The PAN defended the hearing of Catarina Sarmento e Castro, as former Minister of Justice, of Helena Almeida Estevesas Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice and Pedro Rosaas former head of the Financial, Patrimonial and Technological Resources Services Department of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice.
He also urged the hearing of a representative of the National Cybersecurity Center, as operational coordinator and national authority on cybersecurity with State entities and representatives of the social networks Telegram and Signal Foundation.
The only PAN deputy pointed out that the reported facts raise “issues of an institutional and systemic nature that cannot fail to be analyzed by the Assembly of the Republic”.
“(…) They raise legitimate doubts regarding the robustness of the Public Administration’s cybersecurity systems, the existence and effectiveness of mechanisms for controlling access to clearly illegal content, as well as internal alert and reporting procedures whenever such access is detected”, he stressed.
“It is also necessary to understand whether, in the specific case of Paulo Abreu Santos’ alleged access to pornography content of minors on the Ministry’s computer, there was any blocking or alert by the IT department (Directorate of Financial, Patrimonial and Technological Resources Services of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice) and whether there was a subsequent report to the respective General Secretary and the Minister of Justice – and what subsequent referral there was.
