In statements to Lusa, at the Porto Court of Appeal, where the conference "The EARHVD composition, objectives, recommendations, repercussions of the analysis carried out and its impact on various entities" is taking place, and recalling that "the hearing of the child is enshrined in the law", Raquel Desterro considered that the 15-year-old child "should have been heard".

"That is a major recommendation that [the team] makes. Yes [she should have been heard]. Furthermore, she was already 15 years old and had experienced, as a victim, the scourge of domestic violence. And the school should also have reported the situation. Because, in this specific case, the criminal police bodies, namely the PSP, made three reports: they reported to the CPCJ [Child and Youth Protection Commission], the school and the health authorities", she said.

According to the most recent EARHVD report, published on 15 May, "despite the various reports by various entities, the CPCJ had a very limited and scarce temporary intervention in the protection" of a child who was 15 years old when her father killed her mother.

"Although it considered that the child was in danger, it never proceeded to hear her individually", the report reads.

Invited to comment on this case by Lusa, Raquel Desterro was peremptory: "The warnings were there".

"There are reports in which things happened, but it was completely unpredictable that they would have been expected to happen. There are others, such as this case, in which there were more than warnings and, unfortunately, I must say, the authorities from various areas did not take due account of the signs that this family was giving", she said.

According to the information available, the child lived exposed to "a pattern of persistent psychological, physical and sexual violence" between her parents, "more frequently between 2016 and 2019", the year in which the father ended up killing the mother in their residence, after sending his son to the supermarket.

In the analysis of the case, the EARHVD says that the child went to an emergency shelter and then to a shelter, with her mother, following an episode of domestic violence, and that "the existence of physical and emotional neglect" in which the minor was found was "persistently identified".

The first report was made in 2015, by the school, due to "absenteeism and neglect".

From 2017 onwards, the PSP reported the child four times, twice for episodes of domestic violence, once because she was with her father when he physically assaulted a public transport driver and ended up being arrested, and finally, following the murder of her mother.

The social action services also reported the child in 2017, following the emergency response, because the father "did not constitute a protective alternative".

According to the report, in view of the various reports, a case was opened in 2015 and in 2017 a promotion and protection agreement was signed, but "in view of the repeated failure" by the mother and father to comply with the promotion and protection measure, the CPCJ closed the case and sent it to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Today, in a conversation with Lusa, the EARHVD coordinator took the opportunity to talk about the importance of prevention, stressing that "the team's work is precisely to carry out a retrospective analysis of cases that have already been tried in court in order to prevent other similar or different cases".

"This situation, of course, concerns the entire team. That is why we make recommendations with the sole purpose of flagging up situations and alerting the various entities and authorities to the fact that only through joint and coordinated action between all entities is it possible to combat the scourge of domestic violence in Portugal, Europe and the world", she said.

Raquel Desterro also stressed that the team's recommendations are "warnings and constructive criticism" regardless of the authorities targeted, from, for example, "the Government, the judicial authorities, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the CPCJ".

"Our concern is to act. We wish we didn't have to make recommendations", she concluded.

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