The Court of Leiria convicted, on 21 April, the father and stepmother of Valentina, respectively, for the crimes of murder, desecration of corpse, abuse of simulation of danger signs in co-authorship, and domestic violence, only for the defendant.
The prosecutor understood that, although it was the father who caused the injuries that led to Valentina's death, in Atouguia da Baleia, in the municipality of Peniche, his partner "did nothing to prevent it and had no impediment".
According to the autopsy report cited by the Public Ministry (MP), Valentina's death "was due to brain contusion with subarachnoid hemorrhage".
The couple hid Valentina's body in a forest area, in the Serra d'El Rei (Peniche municipality, Leiria district), and agreed the following day to alert the authorities to the child's "false disappearance".
For the MP, father and stepmother left Valentina "to agonize, in the presence of other minors, indifferent to the intense suffering of the same", there is no doubt that the stepmother collaborated in the father's action without promoting help to the minor or preventing the assaults.