In another surprising decision by Portuguese justice, a Facebook trickster who pretended to be the mother of a dying child, taking photographs of herself with him, and then depicting his apparent grave – when the child was very much alive – has been allowed to walk free, the case against her dismissed on technical grounds.
The judge ruled that prosecutors were much too ‘simplistic’ in the way they presented their case: using print-screen images,instead of making digital copies – and not even searching the defendant’s home.
Maria Inês Amorim’s use of the images “was not even minimally proved”, said the judge in a text that doesn’t explain my Amorim was using the images, or what she hoped to obtain.
National tabloid Correio da Manhã reports that Amorim is delighted by the decision, but left Marco de Canaveses court in tears as she claims it cannot “remove all the harm that has been done” (presumably to her).
As for the real mother of the four-year-old child used in the images, CM says she has been left “disillusioned”.
