Judge unfit to judge

Judge Neto de Moura, whose judicial decisions have widely been criticised for devaluing and downplaying assaults on women because they committed adultery or were not visibly bruised, also did not consider an assault on a four year old child as 'serious.'

According to Correio da Manhã, in 2010, when Neto de Moura was operating at the Lisbon Court of Appeal, he considered as ‘excessive’ the four-year and six-month sentence imposed on a man who had assaulted his wife and his four-year-old daughter.

The judge considered the fact that the child was kicked and slapped at home and on the street as being "within the limits of what is considered acceptable for a parent to correct a child."

For this judge and the second one who signed the judgment, the victims were not entitled to any psychological support because the consequences of the assaults were of "little importance, not going beyond a few bruises."

The judge pointed out that the accused had been quite restrained in his assault because he had not "used an instrument or weapon of any kind against the offended."

The man had his sentence reduced to three years, suspended, and was released.

Neto de Moura has been criticised for the recent domestic violence judgments in which he quoted the Bible to excuse the violent assaults suffered by a woman by her husband and another man for committing adultery. She was attacked with a nail-spiked club. (here)

The appeal summary justified the assault with a nail-spiked club by referring to the olden days when in certain civilizations, adultery was punishable by death.

In 2013, the same judge played down the assaults suffered by a woman who accused her husband of having punched her in the nose and bitten one of her hands when she had a newborn in her lap.

The woman attacked with a club, who was branded "adulterous" in a Biblical polemic in the ruling by the Oporto Court of Appeal, signed by Judges Joaquim Neto de Moura and Maria Luísa Abrantes, has not yet decided whether to bring any action against the State or against the individual judges.

Speaking to Diário de Notícias today, the victim's lawyer, Erica Durães, revealed that she will have a meeting with her client to study the alternatives, but that at the moment nothing is decided.

As for the judgment and the description of the victim, "a woman committing adultery is a false, hypocritical, dishonest, disloyal, futile, immoral person. In short, she lacks moral probity. It is not surprising that she resorts to deception, farce, lies to hide her disloyalty," the lawyer said that “it is clear that no human being can be satisfied with this. But whether the victim, who is very tired of it all, intends to mount a judicial action, I do not know. I have no instructions in that regard."

The President of the Republic commented today, Wednesday 25th October, on the controversial 'adultery' ruling from the Oporto Court of Appeal that used the Bible and the 1886 penal code to mitigate the crime of domestic violence, stating, somewhat enigmatically for those without a legal background, that "all holders of political power must comply and enforce the Constitution that came into force in 1976 and the laws that apply under that Constitution."

Judge Neto de Moura

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