A 25-year-old Portuguese man is accused of savagely beating and raping a three-year-old boy in Poland who later died of his injuries.
The emigré denies charges of murder, rape and abuse of a minor incapable of defending himself, but has been remanded in custody pending a trial date.
So far unnamed or otherwise identified, the man was purportedly looking after the child “who would not stop crying”, say reports.
The child’s mother was out during the attack, explains tabloid Correio da Manhã.
When she returned, she found her son unconscious, in a “critical condition” with a “deep wound to his head”.
The 23-year-old woman rushed him to a local hospital where he was transferred by helicopter to a special trauma unit in nearby Lodz.
The little boy died the following day (last Saturday).
Says CM, Polish police are working on the theory that the Portuguese man simply “lost his head” because the child would not settle “due to the absence of his mother”.
Neighbours interviewed by Polish television channel TVN24 have attested to hearing the child crying in the past, but never having alerted the authorities.
Says CM, the Portuguese suspect faces a jail term of anything between 12 years to life if found guilty.
For now, he has been remanded in preventive custody for the next three months as police conclude this tragic investigation.
The town where the Portuguese man was living with his Polish girlfriend is Wieruszów, on the Posna river.
