Father sentenced to 36 years in prison for rape against daughter is acquitted months later
Decision of the 3rd Criminal Chamber points to a lack of evidence and contradictions in the prosecution’s statements
Quick Look
- The Ceará Court of Justice acquitted a man accused of sexually abusing his daughter.
- The decision was based on the lack of material evidence, contradictions in testimonies and the in dubio pro reo principle, after the defense appealed a previous conviction.
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Why It Matters
The case involves a long-standing complaint of sexual abuse made by a daughter against her father, which resulted in conviction at first instance and subsequent acquittal by the ECJ.
In the complaint, the man's daughter said that she had been abused by him for years, from childhood until adolescence. She said that she was only able to report the crime after she was an adult, as she was threatened by him, and that she even got her father pregnant and had an abortion.
The man's conviction was handed down in February 2026 by the Maracanaú District, in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza, but his defense appealed and the case went to the Court of Justice.
When analyzing the case, the ECJ panel highlighted that, although "the victim's word has special relevance in crimes against sexual freedom [...], it does not have absolute value and must be assessed together with the other elements of evidence". Furthermore, according to the judges, the victim's statements "were not corroborated by independent evidence."
According to documents to which g1 had access, the daughter claimed to have had an abortion in a public hospital in Maracanaú. By procedure, hospitals must report this type of sexual abuse abortion to the police. No records of abortion or hospitalization or laboratory tests related to the procedure were found.
An aunt of the daughter, who testified against the man, said that she would have accompanied the young woman to take the pregnancy test, but was unable to say the name of the clinic and later stated that it had closed. Finally, she said she didn't know where the pregnancy test was - mother and daughter also didn't point out where the test that proved the pregnancy was.
There were also contradictions about the circumstances of the alleged abortion. At one point, witnesses say that the daughter announced her pregnancy and she herself decided to abort. At another point, a witness says that the father ordered the abortion and even paid for it.
The ECJ highlighted that the accusation against the man occurred while he and his wife were in dispute over the separation of assets after the separation, which "although it does not allow us to conclude that the accusation was false, it constitutes a contextual element that recommends special caution".
The case was analyzed in the 3rd Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice and the case rapporteur voted to acquit the man based on the concept of in dubio pro reo, that is, in the absence of solid evidence, the result must be the defendant's acquittal. Her vote was followed by the other members of the board.
Open Questions
- Will there be an appeal by the Public Prosecutor's Office against the ECJ's decision?
