A local Portuguese resident was sentenced to five years and six months behind bars on Tuesday for sexually abusing his two children, a two-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy, according to the sentence announced by the Court of First Instance (TJB).
He was also sentenced to pay MOP 200,000 to each child, according to the Macau Post Daily.
The defendant’s lawyer, Joao Miguel Barros, told the Portuguese media that he was determined to appeal. He said he was convinced of his client’s innocence and complained that the sentence was merely based on testimony by the two children. The judges, however, ruled that the children’s testimony was credible and that they had not been influenced by their mother when testifying against their father.
According to the sentence, the sexual abuse took place on weekends between 2011 and 2016. The defendant was arrested in May 2016 after a criminal complaint by his wife, a local Portuguese national.
The defendant was acquitted of exhibitionism, mistreatment of his children and sexual relations with his daughter.
