Education | Costa Nunes sexual abuse case closed

A staff member of D. José da Costa Nunes in Macau, who was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of children, has been cleared of all charges, TDM Radio Macau reported.

According to the report, the judge in charge of initiating the case has dropped the charges, deciding to archive it late last month because of a lack of evidence that could lead to a formal accusation.

The case had been previously considered closed by a different judge earlier this year for the same reason, but it was reopened in May by the initiative of a group of parents of the children involved in the case.

The parents appealed the decision taken by the Public Prosecutions Office, which dismissed the case for a lack of evidence. Disagreeing with this decision, the parents had asked for the case to be reopened, claiming that the investigation and the questioning of the children had been flawed.

In the process that followed, a judge re-evaluated the earlier decisions to drop the case and determined if the procedures of the Public Prosecutions Office were correct, according to the evidence or testimonies collected in the investigation phase.

In this case, the judge agreed with the opinion of the prosecution that the case did not have enough support to be presented to the courts.

A group of parents initiated the investigation almost two years ago by presenting complaints to the school at first and then to the Judiciary Police.

The institution, under the administration of the Association for Macanese Education, has also presented formal complaints and undertaken measures that included the suspension of a kindergarten class teacher and the school psychologist as well as the firing of the employee accused of criminal conduct.

Internal investigations into the behavior of the director of the kindergarten, the psychologist and the class teacher were carried out by the APIM, and they resulted in the dismissal of the teacher and the issuing of a warning to the director. RM