Supreme aggravates penalty for young people who killed sister

The Supreme Court (STJ) aggravated this Thursday to 14 years and nine months the prison penalty to the young woman who killed her sister in Peniche in August 2023.

The 18 -year -old was now convicted at the Leiria Judicial Court in November 2024 for the crimes of qualified homicide (12 years in prison) and desecration of corpse (nine months in prison).

In legal cumulation resulted in a single penalty of 12 years and three months in prison, due to the special regime for young people.

The Public Prosecution Service (MP) appealed, considering that the young woman should not benefit from the special regime for young people, with consequences in the partial and unique penalties. And in the case of a negative answer to this question, the penalties, which should be aggravated.

“(…) Contrary to the one decided by the 1st instance, we understand that there are no serious reasons to believe that the special attenuation of the penalty result advantages for the social reintegration of the defendant, so it should not benefit from the special criminal regime for young people”, reads in the STJ judgment.

As for the consequences of non -application of this regime in the penalties, the STJ stressed that it is “very high the unlawfulness of the facts relatively” to the murder and the medium to desecration of the corpse, “the same happening regarding the intensity of the intent” in both.

However, and quoted by the Lusa agency, he acknowledged that “the defendant’s youth and the adverse conditions in which his growth process took place, with consequences at the psychic, intellectual, affective, ethical and emotional level, must deserve strong attenuative value”.

Thus, he applied a 14 -year -and -a -half -year sentence for the crime of qualified homicide, and the sentence of one year in prison for the crime of desecration of the corpse.

« Everything weighted, we consider it necessary, adequate, proportional and fully supported by the defendant’s guilt of the single penalty of 14 years and nine months in prison, » he said.