Paedophilia reports at Lisbon boys' home rock Portugal

Diario de Noticias

Labour Minister Antonio Bagao Felix sacked the head of Casa Pia, Portugal's largest state-supported boys' home (founded in 1780 for boys with or without handicaps and on foster arrangements), yesterday (Monday 25 November), after his remarks on reports of sexual assaults committed in the institution, all major Portuguese dailies reported today.

Reacting to allegations of paedophile acts committed by an employee at the Lisbon institution for a period spanning over 20 years, Luis Rebelo, the governor sacked from the boys' home, said that despite employing 1,300 people there had only been "one report of paedophile acts". The minister described the remark as "tactless" and added that "this issue is not to be dealt with in statistical terms," because, he added, "in an institution that is supposed to provide love to its children, a single report is relevant enough".

At a press conference that followed his dismissal, Luis Rebelo said he was not responsible for acts committed in the seventies and alleged he was the only official in charge to have ever taken any action toward punishing the worker in question in the 27 years he worked for the boys' home. In the meantime, the minister ordered an inquiry into the allegations and announced new management would be appointed to Casa Pia before the end of the year.

The controversy intensified when it emerged that Teresa Costa Macedo, a former secretary of state for family affairs in the government in 1983, had been informed of this case. She has since said that she was given proof of the alleged paedophile acts at the time and provided the police with proof.

According to a report published in the weekly Expresso on Saturday (23 November), Teresa Costa Macedo suggested the allegations might have "met with indifference" because "it involved several very important people". All newspapers have also reported that the suspect is now under police arrest.

Antonio Ribeiro Ferreira, writing in Diario de Noticias today, drew a comparison with a sex scandal from the sixties, that went down in history as "Ballet Rose". He described the new controversy as the "Ballet Blue". The original scandal shook the then Salazar government as it implicated prominent figures in public life, the government and the Church in a network of prostitutes and paedophilia. The police were accused at the time of covering up the story, which was censored in Portugal, but extensively reported abroad.