The events date back to August this year, when a 35-year-old firefighter from the city of Machico, on the island of Madeira, was arrested for violently attacking his 34-year-old wife in front of her nine-year-old son, in an act that was filmed by video surveillance cameras and went viral on social media. The man was placed in pre-trial detention on August 28th and, since October 15th, he was subject to a coercive measure requiring him to remain in his home with electronic surveillance.
The Diário de Notícias da Madeira advances in this Sunday’s editionDecember 21st, that the man will not go to trial because the woman withdrew the criminal proceedings against her husband. He told the newspaper that only the imposition of the “contact prohibition coercive measure” currently prevents them from being together as a couple, stressing that the attack was an “isolated act”.
In October, the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against the firefighter on suspicion of two crimes of aggravated domestic violence, committed against his wife and nine-year-old son.
The newspaper also states that the woman informed the Funchal Criminal Investigation Court that she did not intend to continue the criminal proceedings. And the defendant made a request asking for the proceedings to be suspended. The request was accepted by the criminal investigation judge and the defendant was forced to undergo treatment for alcoholism and attend a program against domestic violence.
At the time of the events, in August, the victim suffered a large bruise in one of his eyes and underwent surgery at the Dr. Nélio Mendonça hospital, in Funchal. The man admitted on that occasion to Diário de Notícias da Madeira that he was “deeply sorry” for his actions.
With Lusa