PJ arrests model airplane club manager for sexual abuse of minors

A leader of a model airplane club in Vila Nova de Gaia is suspected of sexually abusing three children who accompanied him to sports events, a source from the Judicial Police (PJ) revealed to the Portuguese agency on Wednesday.

The source of the Directorate of the Center of the PJ explained that the 52-year-old man, arrested on Tuesday, “has been part of a model airplane club for more than 20 years, He is currently a leader and it is in this context that he meets the victims“.

Since he had the full confidence of his parents, the minors accompanied him to national sports events,” he said, adding that the PJ admits “the existence of more victims.”

The events that gave rise to the investigation took place in October 2022, in Mira, Coimbra district, where “the detainee and one of the victims, aged 15, attended a modality event.”

According to the same source, “the minor was abused this time, I felt very uncomfortable with the situation and told the parents, who filed a complaint.”

In the course of the investigation, the PJ has already identified “two more victims”, and in the case of one of them, “the mistreatment began when he was 10 years old and lasted until he was 15”.

Another 15-year-old boy was also abused several times,” said the PJ source, adding that these two victims had not filed a complaint and only now revealed that they were abused.

In addition to the crime of sexual abuse of minors, the man is Suspected of the crime of sexual abuse of dependent minors because the boysthey were in his care in the periods in which they went to events, especially on weekends”, he explained.

The detainee is single, a factory employee and has no criminal record. After the judicial interrogation to which he was subjected this Wednesday, he was forced to remain in his house with an electronic bracelet and was prohibited from contacting the victims and from using the Internet.