The children’s detailed reports in court and documentary evidence, including “informal confessions,” led to the arrest of Brasilia photographer Tomás Facchini in late October. He was sentenced to 13 years and 2 months in prison for rape of a vulnerable person and sexual harassment of a minor between the ages of 7 and 14.
Tomás is accused of carrying out the abuse primarily on the farm where he lived in DF San Sebastian, where he invited the victims’ families after gaining their friendship and trust.
There, the man committed a crime without the adults realizing it. The episodes included touching the children’s private parts, biting them and kissing them on the mouth under the pretext of “joking”. The victims also reported that the cameraman put his hands inside their clothes and forced them to remain silent.
In sentencing the defendants, the judge declared that the children’s testimony was “consistent, harmonious, and consistent with the dynamics of the facts,” and said there was no reasonable doubt as to the significance and authorship of the crime. The case is final and there are no further appeals.
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fart big city A young woman, identified here as Maria*, said she became the photographer’s victim when she was 12 years old. Now of legal age, she said she simulated a game where a man touched her private parts.
“That day, my mother and I, who were friends with Tomas, went to visit his farm. The place was always full of friends that Tomas invited, and they took their children to the farm. That day, after all the children left, they made me watch a movie. After a while Tomas arrived and even though I told him to stop, he started tickling me and groping me under my clothes,” he explained.
“I insisted that he stop, but he kept saying he was joking. At one point, Tomas started breathing on my stomach and lowered his head on my private parts. When I managed to free myself, I ran crying and locked myself in the car,” the young woman recounted.
Maria* also said that the man pretended to massage her leg so that he could place it on his penis. “He took the lives of many girls, including mine. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about what he did to me. It took a lot of therapy to talk about what happened and be able to live again,” he said.
Maria*’s case was revealed in a separate lawsuit. Thomas was found guilty in the first trial, but acquitted in the second trial. Some time later, a second incident involving three more children mentioned above occurred, and the defendant was sent to prison.
“Criminal negligence”
After committing the crime against one of the children, the photographer sent a message to the minor’s guardian saying he had committed an “unfortunate and horrifying act”, apologizing and saying he had committed a “criminal negligence”.
“(…) Indulging in arrogance and ignorance, I shattered my holiness and lost myself. I want you to know that I am going to make amends in some way, but I don’t know exactly how yet, because there is no real atonement for such pain,” he declared.
“For this reason, I ask for forgiveness and sincerely apologize for crossing a border that I truly had no right to make. I made a very embarrassing criminal mistake, and it is a stain that will definitely carry me to justice on the other side,” the man wrote.
According to the court, the evidence, through technical expertise, established the authenticity of messages exchanged between Thomas and the minor’s mother.
fart big city Another mother spoke about the importance of the ruling, saying: “The trauma that sexual abuse inflicts on children and their families is immense and we have to deal with it throughout our lives. Children often don’t understand what happened when they were young, but in adolescence this ends. It’s shocking.”
“It is very important that such crimes are punished in an exemplary manner in Brazil. Children in Brazil are abused every day and often in their own homes. This punishment serves to remove (the offenders) from society and eliminate the possibility of them coming into contact with minors,” he pointed out.
Manuela Paes Landim, a lawyer representing the victims, said in an interview that the photographer’s arrest “demonstrates the strength of the institution’s serious, dedicated and ethical work,” adding: “No technical preparation is sufficient to deal with brutal violence that destroys innocence and offends the most basic human senses.”
“Even if the judiciary fulfills its role, the feelings that remain are ambiguous, because no sentence can erase the trauma of the victims or restore their stolen childhood. Arresting the perpetrators is an important step, but true reparations require much more recognition, acceptance, and social change.”
The court rejected the defendant’s version
In court, Tomas Facchini denied the crime and claimed he was the victim of a “frame” organized by the victims’ mothers. He said his ex-girlfriend, who was dissatisfied with the end of their relationship, instigated the allegations in an attempt to harm him.
But the court rejected this version, deeming it inconsistent with documents and testimony. Judges understood the photographer’s first acts occurred in 2017, before he began a relationship with the mother of one of his victims.
The judgment emphasized that Fachini took advantage of the victim’s trust and vulnerability, using jokes as an excuse to create a familiar environment in order to “satisfy his sexual desires.”
“People think that the child abuse complaint was made by the mother, but it is the child himself who tells what happened. The children are taken to a room to talk alone with the psychologist. So if the process worked in the end, it was because the psychologist proved that the children were not lying,” said a third mother interviewed by the portal.
One of the judges in the case said the delay in victims speaking out about their suffering was consistent with the behavior of abused children and adolescents, which is “often characterized by fear, shame and guilt.”
The big city He attempted to contact Thomas’ defense through his attorney, but received no response until the last update of this report. The space remains open for demonstration possibilities.
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