Manuel Mota Botelho, a 72-year-old judge from the Azores, is going on trial after being charged with 16 counts of child prostitution for allegedly luring six minors who were in the care of institutions to have sex at his home in Lagoa, São Miguel, between 2019 and 2023.
The boys, aged between 15 and 17, were lured by the offer of sweets, pizzas, and a cash sum of 25 euros, writes Público.
Afterward, the judge, who at the time was a magistrate in the Azores, would call each of the minors aside to perform oral sex on them.
The now retired judge denies the facts, which were investigated following the ‘Farfalha’ case for practices with young people, which were not always a crime.
Described by SIC as “one of the most secretive cases” it has ever investigated, it relates to crimes between 2019 and 2023 in São Miguel, in the Azores. In total, six victims received payments of 25 euros for sexual acts.
The prosecution’s indictment states that the victims were generally “boys with problems of family, social and school integration, poverty and drug addiction” and that the judge approached them in public, “charming them with flattering words or giving them small amounts of money.”
Counsellor Judge Leonor Furtado, who took over the case, validated all the evidence during the pre-trial phase and considered that the defendant “carried out serious acts to satisfy his sexual appetites” and was fully aware of the young people’s age.
The suspicions surrounding the judge are not new. SIC reports that a document from 2003, referring to a case known as “Casa Pia dos Açores,” already included accusations of sexual crimes against minors against Manuel Mota Botelho, who was a prosecutor at the time.
The most recent investigation into the judge was opened following a tap on the cell phone of “Farfalha,” the main defendant in this 2003 case, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for various crimes of sexual abuse.
Questioned by SIC, Manuel Mota Botelho’s defense rejects all the accusations. “The decision presents errors of fact and law. It charges alleged crimes that the alleged victims themselves deny and is based on testimony whose recordings either didn’t exist or aren’t in the case file. The court will do justice by acquitting,” says the defense lawyer.

In Correio dos Açores, Natalino Viveiros, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.