Portuguese president vows full investigation in child sex scandal

BARRY HATTON

Associated Press

President Jorge Sampaio promised an exhaustive police investigation Wednesday into allegations of decades-long sexual abuse by staff at a state-run boys' home in Lisbon.

The child sex scandal has snowballed over the last five days since former students began alleging widespread abuse at the home since the late 1970s. Politicians have expressed concerns of a cover-up after claims that a former president, several ex-government members and senior police officers were told of the abuses 20 years ago but ignored them.

"The legal procedures which have to be set in motion will be set in motion. Investigations will be carried out and no stone will be left unturned," Sampaio said Wednesday.

More than 100 boys at the home suffered abuse, including alleged homosexual rape and pedophile prostitution, according to S.I.C. television channel.

An employee at the home, Carlos Silvino, was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of raping children in his care and organizing an alleged pedophile ring since the late 1970s. He was accused by a former student and a staff member at the home in an investigative report last weekend by S.I.C. television and weekly paper Expresso.

Parliament passed a unanimous vote condemning the alleged abuse, and the president of Parliament, Joao Mota Amaral, said he feared there had been "a monstrous cover-up."

A former secretary of state for families, Teresa Costa Macedo, said she first reported the alleged pedophile ring in 1980. But she said in media interviews, authorities failed to act.

Police said they could find no trace of her reports. On Tuesday, Costa Macedo handed police copies of the original reports drawn up in 1980 and 1982.

Costa Macedo also claimed that then-president Gen. Antonio Ramalho Eanes, head of state from 1976-86, and former social affairs minister Carlos Macedo, who was her superior, knew of the allegations but took no action.

Both men denied any knowledge of the case.

In a separate case, a mentally handicapped 17-year-old girl who allegedly was raped by an employee of another state-run home in Lisbon was reported to be recovering in hospital Wednesday, the national news agency Lusa reported.

Both homes involved in the allegations are governed by the Casa Pia, a state institution. Welfare Minister Antonio Bagao Felix said the Casa Pia's entire board of governors would be replaced in coming months.