Seven guilty in Portugal child sex abuse trial

SEVEN people were convicted of child sex abuse in Portugal yesterday in a major trial that lasted nearly six years and shocked the country.

The six men and one woman were found guilty of crimes including sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a paedophile ring at a state-run children’s home in Lisbon during the 1990s.

The six men were handed jail sentences of between six and 18 years for sexual abuse. The woman, whose house was used by the ring, was not given a custodial sentence because of a 2007 change in the law, the judge said in the televised ruling, without elaborating.