The young homeless mother who gave birth on the streets and dumped her newborn in a rubbish bin has been condemned to nine years in jail.
The story of how the tiny child survived November temperatures shocked the nation last year (click here) and led to President Marcelo travelling to the spot where the infant was ‘plucked from certain death’ after 36 hours lying naked on top of recycled plastic and metal to congratulate the man who saved him (click here) .
There was never any doubt that Sara Furtado intended to kill her child.
CCTV images showed her returning to the spot where he lay, seeing that he was still alive and leaving him for a second time.
The Public Ministry in charging her with attempted murder, called for a 12-year jail term. Finding her guilty, the judge however has opted for nine years.
Furtado has been in preventive custody awaiting trial and is understood to now to be ‘learning a profession’
Her defence argued that she intended for the baby to be found, and didn’t want ‘the shame’ of living with a newborn on the streets.
It is possible, said defence lawyer Rute Santos, that Sara Furtado will appeal.
Her child, meantime, has been placed with a family and will hopefully never learn of the awful way in which he came into the world.
