GUILTY PORTUGAL - Valentina Fonseca, 9, found deceased, Peniche, 7 May 2020 *father, stepmother arrested*

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Lusitana said:
Valentina's "brother" is in shock. The boy watched witnessed 9-year-old girl's suffering

The 12-year-old son of Valentina's stemother is suffering, his state is described as apathetic, shocked. The boy was not related by blood to the 9-year-old, but the children were very close.
He is the most important witness in the case, his testimony helped proving that the version provided by Sandro and Márcia Bernardo was absolutely false, he saw Valentina die. The boy is not speaking much about anything these days, let alone about the actual crime. He is mourning Valentina's death and receiving psychological help.
He won't have to testify again on trial, his statements will still be valid then. He is currently living with his father.
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Poor kid :(
 
Lusitana said:
The hell of Valentina Bernardo's death
It was after a session of torture with hot water in the bathroom, strangulation and a severe blow to the head that the child went into convulsion. The father and stepmother, instead of calling for help, left her on the couch.

Valentina's hell started a week before her death - the day she was beaten and tortured by her father with her stepmother's active collaboration. According to information collected by SÁBADO, the abuse against the 9-year-old girl actually started on May 1, because her father, Sandro Bernardo, suspected that his daughter was involved in sexual acts with schoolmates and was a victim of sexual abuse by the man she called "godfather". And he decided to force her to "confess" by beating her violently.
Days later, the process of torturing Valentina began. It was 9 AM. The investigation by the PJ of Leiria was meticulous, reaching the conclusion that as the minor didn't "confess", Sandro started throwing burning hot water at her feet, using the shower head for this purpose, the child begged him to stop and he eventually turned the water off.
However, immediately afterwards, as his daughter still didn't say what the defendant Sandro intended to hear, he started pouring very hot water, using the shower head again, over her whole body, while he slapped her in the legs and the butt (I don't know a more formal word to translate it to?), very hard, as well as using the girl’s own slipper to hit Valentina very hard. He put his hands around her neck, and choked her, causing her to have trouble breathing. All of this happened in the presence of her stepmother, Márcia, who did nothing to stop him. A strong blow to the head would turn out to be fatal. Both the father and the stepmother realized that Valentina was gravely injured but, instead of calling for medical help, they let her die on the family couch.
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My god!
 
Lusitana said:
The hell of Valentina Bernardo's death
It was after a session of torture with hot water in the bathroom, strangulation and a severe blow to the head that the child went into convulsion. The father and stepmother, instead of calling for help, left her on the couch.

Valentina's hell started a week before her death - the day she was beaten and tortured by her father with her stepmother's active collaboration. According to information collected by SÁBADO, the abuse against the 9-year-old girl actually started on May 1, because her father, Sandro Bernardo, suspected that his daughter was involved in sexual acts with schoolmates and was a victim of sexual abuse by the man she called "godfather". And he decided to force her to "confess" by beating her violently.
Days later, the process of torturing Valentina began. It was 9 AM. The investigation by the PJ of Leiria was meticulous, reaching the conclusion that as the minor didn't "confess", Sandro started throwing burning hot water at her feet, using the shower head for this purpose, the child begged him to stop and he eventually turned the water off.
However, immediately afterwards, as his daughter still didn't say what the defendant Sandro intended to hear, he started pouring very hot water, using the shower head again, over her whole body, while he slapped her in the legs and the butt (I don't know a more formal word to translate it to?), very hard, as well as using the girl’s own slipper to hit Valentina very hard. He put his hands around her neck, and choked her, causing her to have trouble breathing. All of this happened in the presence of her stepmother, Márcia, who did nothing to stop him. A strong blow to the head would turn out to be fatal. Both the father and the stepmother realized that Valentina was gravely injured but, instead of calling for medical help, they let her die on the family couch.
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My god!
 
What is happening to our world? I understand that there have always been monsters out there but it seems that it is so much more common now. Every time a child goes missing EVERYONE automatically thinks the parents had something to do with it and unfortunately in a high percentage of cases that is the truth. This of course makes me wonder about the cases of missing children from decades ago.

This child gave a cry for help at least a year ago when she ‘ran away’ from her fathers home and was found crying for her mother. She was probably terrified to tell her mother and/or the authorities about the abuse in that house. It is a case of hindsight is 20/20 of course.

Why would a father torture a 9 year old over supposed sexual contact? If he thought there was sexual contact he didn’t need her ‘confession’ he should have gone straight to the authorities. Maybe he was afraid she would say too much to someone about what was happening at home...MOO. So many questions...and the father and step mother will be out of prison in 25 years or less. I don’t pretend to understand other countries penal systems. I do know that some countries do try to focus on rehabilitation I am not sure about Portugal. But in this case there can be no rehabilitation or redemption for these people. They tortured a child to death and seem to be showing very little in the way of remorse.

I will step off of my soap box now. This case has just affected me greatly because of the inhuman levels of depravity. My heart goes out to the mother, family and friends of this child. All statements are my thoughts and opinion only.
 
Linear13 said:
What is happening to our world? I understand that there have always been monsters out there but it seems that it is so much more common now. Every time a child goes missing EVERYONE automatically thinks the parents had something to do with it and unfortunately in a high percentage of cases that is the truth. This of course makes me wonder about the cases of missing children from decades ago.

This child gave a cry for help at least a year ago when she ‘ran away’ from her fathers home and was found crying for her mother. She was probably terrified to tell her mother and/or the authorities about the abuse in that house. It is a case of hindsight is 20/20 of course.

Why would a father torture a 9 year old over supposed sexual contact? If he thought there was sexual contact he didn’t need her ‘confession’ he should have gone straight to the authorities. Maybe he was afraid she would say too much to someone about what was happening at home...MOO. So many questions...and the father and step mother will be out of prison in 25 years or less. I don’t pretend to understand other countries penal systems. I do know that some countries do try to focus on rehabilitation I am not sure about Portugal. But in this case there can be no rehabilitation or redemption for these people. They tortured a child to death and seem to be showing very little in the way of remorse.

I will step off of my soap box now. This case has just affected me greatly because of the inhuman levels of depravity. My heart goes out to the mother, family and friends of this child. All statements are my thoughts and opinion only.
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I will delve further into speculation than I usually do and say that the psychology of this case and cases like it (Anthony Avalos, Oceane Boyer, possibly AJ Freund etc) probably begins with subverted romantic feelings for the child then shame mixes with jealousy and gets projected and vented on the object of those feelings.

Valentina apparently liked some other (more normal) adult man more than her scary dad, liked the boys at school better and dad's messed up brain tells him that must mean there's something sexual going on despite this girl being prepubescent.

This kind of flawed thinking is often caused by the perpetrator having suffered some form of sexual abuse as a prepubescent themselves and developing an unnatural perception of sex.

You bring up another good point that hasn't ever occurred to me about how it might be worth reexamining some cases from the milk carton kids era and before under the light of more modern psychological understanding.
 
evilwise said:
I will delve further into speculation than I usually do and say that the psychology of this case and cases like it (Anthony Avalos, Oceane Boyer, possibly AJ Freund etc) probably begins with subverted romantic feelings for the child then shame mixes with jealousy and gets projected and vented on the object of those feelings.

Valentina apparently liked some other (more normal) adult man more than her scary dad, liked the boys at school better and dad's messed up brain tells him that must mean there's something sexual going on despite this girl being prepubescent.

This kind of flawed thinking is often caused by the perpetrator having suffered some form of sexual abuse as a prepubescent themselves and developing an unnatural perception of sex.

You bring up another good point that hasn't ever occurred to me about how it might be worth reexamining some cases from the milk carton kids era and before under the light of more modern psychological understanding.
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I honestly don't believe this crime was sexually motivated, at all. The "boys at school" and the godfather were simply used as a "motive" for the horrible beatings he subjected his own daughter to. Valentina didn't even knew her father's name when she was 6 years-old, this poor child was a persona non grata at her father's house. The stepmother didn't want her there and was pressuring the father to send her back. Valentina was spending time at her father's house because her mother didn't have the means at her house for the child to remote learn due to the COVID-19 situation. It has been reported by family members that Valentina liked going to her father's house because she liked to spend time with her siblings. Her father always had a really distant. uninvolved relationship with her and, when he got together with his wife, things got worse for Valentina.
I don't believe she was sexually abused by anyone, if she had any remote signs of sexual abuse then he would've been charged accordingly. He made the whole thing up because he needed to justify the extreme violence inflicted on his own 9-year-old innocent child.
 
Valentina was convulsing for about 8 minutes until she died on her father's lap

Valentina spent about 8 minutes convulsing on her father's lap, until she became inanimate. Sandro picked her up and laid her on the couch in the family's living room. While the child was lying on the couch, the stepmother kept checking to see if she was still breathing, indifferent to her suffering. She didn't do anything to help Valentina and didn't call for medical help. She just kept checking to confirm if the 9-year-old was still alive.
 
Lusitana said:
I honestly don't believe this crime was sexually motivated, at all. The "boys at school" and the godfather were simply used as a "motive" for the horrible beatings he subjected his own daughter to. Valentina didn't even knew her father's name when she was 6 years-old, this poor child was a persona non grata at her father's house. The stepmother didn't want her there and was pressuring the father to send her back. Valentina was spending time at her father's house because her mother didn't have the means at her house for the child to remote learn due to the COVID-19 situation. It has been reported by family members that Valentina liked going to her father's house because she liked to spend time with her siblings. Her father always had a really distant. uninvolved relationship with her and, when he got together with his wife, things got worse for Valentina.
I don't believe she was sexually abused by anyone, if she had any remote signs of sexual abuse then he would've been charged accordingly. He made the whole thing up because he needed to justify the extreme violence inflicted on his own 9-year-old innocent child.
Click to expand...
I don't believe these kids are actually sexually abused by their parents. I think the combination of shame at having sexual feelings for a child combined with the jealousy of that child being more interested in other men is what triggers the kind of rage that can kill a child in a man who is otherwise not known to be violent.
 
evilwise said:
I don't believe these kids are actually sexually abused by their parents. I think the combination of shame at having sexual feelings for a child combined with the jealousy of that child being more interested in other men is what triggers the kind of rage that can kill a child in a man who is otherwise not known to be violent.
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Oh... I don't think it's possible to even formulate that theory from the facts that we have though. We don't know if he wasn't known to be violent, as far as I know, they were evicted from the previous apartment and one of the reasons was the constant problems with domestic violence. I think they were both violent, not just him.
 
Accusations and opposite versions: Everything that Valentina's father and stepmother said during the trial

Sandro changed his version of the events and blamed Márcia for what happened to Valentina.

Márcia, on the other hand, says that she was unable to stop Sandro and that he was the one who violently assaulted Valentina after a call from the girl's babysitter, during which they talked about the child being allegedly sexually abused by her godfather.

Confronted by the judge about the injuries on Valentina's body, Sandro stated that he only slapped her on the behind and then he didn't hit her again.

He claims that it was Márcia who took his daughter to the bathroom and heard screams. "I heard her screaming and Márcia was already pouring hot water on Valentina". He also says that it was his wife who put her in the bathtub, that he was not involved and that when he arrived he saw the girl already fainting. "She started to have spasms, started to shake," he claims.

Sandro denied strangling her and accused his wife of doing so, stating that the only crime he committed was not getting her help.

The Judge questioned why he did nothing to stop Márcia. Sandro said that he tried "but he had a lot of respect for Márcia", who was the one who "called the shots at home".
 
Accusations and opposite versions: Everything that Valentina's father and stepmother said during the trial

Márcia said she wanted to "tell the truth".

"It was on the day of the babysitter's phone call that everything happened," she explains mentioning the alleged sexual abuse. Márcia explains that Sandro confronted the girl and started to attack her.

"I told him [Sandro] to stop because she was small," she explains. "She told us the story of the godfather to me and her father, Sandro hit her and I tried to stop him," she continues.

"He hit her very hard, when I tried to stop him he pushed me and told me that she was his daughter".

"He hit her in the legs, behind, in several places... I tried to protect Valentina".

In the bathroom, Márcia says that "I was trying to take the shower head out of his hand" but that Sandro was pushing her. "The girl was scared," she adds.

The defendant said she heard Valentina yell "stop, stop" and "saw her shaking". She said that she turned off the water.

"I told him to take the little girl [out of the bathtub], I started slapping her on her little face to see if she would say something". "She had her eyes open, but she wasn't answering".
 
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