The former coach of the Brazilian national gymnastics team, Fernando de Carvalho Lopes, was sentenced to 109 years and eight months in prison for the rape of four athletes, including at least one minor, local media reported.
The former Brazilian coach was sentenced in the first instance on Monday by a court in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, according to the Globo Esporte portal, which had access to the process, protected by judicial secrecy.
Carvalho Lopes, who will appeal for being innocent, so he can await the appeal in freedom, was convicted of assaulting four athletes, one of whom was 13 years old at the time of the events, according to the media, which did not specify the ages of others.
However, there are more accusations against him: four years ago, 42 athletes claimed to have been victims of moral, physical or sexual abuse by the coach in a journalistic investigation of the TV Globo program Fantástico.
Some of them participate in the judicial process as witnesses to events that would have occurred between 1999 and 2016, when the former coach directed the MESC club in Sao Bernardo do Campo.
Carvalho Lopes trained young gymnasts for about 20 years and was removed from the national team a month before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, following a complaint by the parents of one of his alleged victims.
Information of: journo.com.mx
photo credits: EFE
