LISBON (BNO NEWS) — Seven people on Friday have been found guilty, including a famous TV celebrity and a former ambassador to UNESCO, of sexually abusing minors and adolescents, raping children and running a pedophile ring for more than 20 years at a state-run children’s home in Portugal.

The six-year trial of the pedophile ring at the Casa Pia orphanage in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, began in 2004 but is now nearing its end. The scandal became public after a group of nine boys claimed to have been victims of sexual abuse between 1998 and 2001 while at the orphanage.

Since then, several other children stepped forward, who are all now between 18 and 23 year old, and after hundreds of witnesses and experts testified, six men and one woman have been found guilty in the child prostitution ring. One of the judges explained and even warned that the evidence and “proven facts” could be shocking and considered pornographic.

The first arrests took place eight years ago, but according to evidence, the activity had been going on for around 30 years. In 2002, Portugal’s Labor Minister, Paulo Pedroso, was arrested on related charges, but he was acquitted only four months later. Pedroso even received payment from the state due to a wrongful arrest.

In the 1980s, allegation were also brought against president General Ramahlo Eanes.

Teresa Costa Macedo, former Secretary of State, claimed to have submitted documents containing evidence of the abuse 20 years ago, but authorities did nothing regarding the case. Macedo claimed that one of the guilty individuals, Carlos Silvino, a former driver and pupil of Casa Pia, would procure children to well-known people “who range from diplomats and politicians to people linked to the media.”

However, Macedo received anonymous threats on a number of occassions. “They said they would kill me, flay me and a lot of other things,” she said.

One of the most recognized people in Portugal, Carlos Cruz, a TV presenter who had been previously voted as the country’s most popular man, has denied the charges, but evidence has shown that he once paid to have sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Cruz, a married man and father of two, had enjoyed decades of a successful TV career, fronting a number of popular shows. He went on to deny the accusations and say they were a mistake and an act of “vendetta.”

The pedophile ring also includes Jorge Ritto, a former UNESCO ambassador, Dr. Ferreira Diniz, Manuel Abrantes, and another man and woman.

The individuals have been facing 800 alleged crimes against 32 minor victims that were carried out on children from the 230-year-old Casa Pia, which houses over 4,000 children.

Authorities have revealed that between 2002 and 2009 the number of cases of under-14s being abused investigated by police tripled from 447 in 2002 to 1,216 last year.

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