Gym coach accused of rape of vulnerable is sentenced to 109 years in prison

The São Paulo Justice sentenced Fernando de Carvalho Lopes, former coach of the Brazilian artistic gymnastics team, to 109 years in prison. Accused by the São Bernardo Public Ministry of the crime of rape of a vulnerable person, Lopes was found guilty in the first instance. Resources fit.

Sought, the defense of the former technician refused to respond to the report. The allegations of the lawyers in the process could not be accessed because the case is in secret of Justice.

The former coach has always pleaded not guilty to allegations of sexual abuse.

The first accusations against Lopes appeared in July 2016, on the eve of the Olympic Games in Rio, when the Public Ministry of São Paulo opened an investigation to investigate a complaint made by an underage athlete who trained with him.

Less than a month before the Olympics, the then coach of the Brazilian men’s artistic gymnastics team was dismissed from the team by the CBG (Brazilian Confederation of Artistic Gymnastics). At the time, the coach also worked with Diego Hypólito, medalist in that edition of the Games.

On April 29, 2018, a report on TV Globo’s Fantástico program showed that more than 40 athletes and former athletes claimed to have been victims of abuse by Lopes.

The formal indictment of the São Bernardo Public Ministry, which has been investigating the crimes since 2016, is based on article 271-A, which deals with rape of a vulnerable person. For her, the agency considered only four victims, all under the age of 14 at the time of the alleged crimes. Another 11 victims were all listed as witnesses in the process.

After the report, the club Mesc (Movimento de Expansão Social Católica), from São Bernardo do Campo, where the coach worked, also decided to remove him.

Important names in gymnastics, such as Petrix Barbosa, medalist in world tournaments and former BBB, were instructed by Lopes at Mesc. After the first complaints, Barbosa revealed his history of constant harassment and abuse by the coach. The cases would have started when Petrix, now 30, was 10.

In the decision, Judge Fernanda Alves da Rocha Branco de Oliva Politi says that, given that the crimes were committed by the accused against four different victims, the sentences must all be added up, totaling 109 years and 8 months of imprisonment.

“The initial regime for serving the sentence will be the closed one, due to the quantum of penalty applied, the gravity and the heinousness of the crime of rape of the vulnerable committed”, declares Oliva.

With the decision in the first instance, there is a possibility of appeal, which must be presented to the TJ-SP (Court of Justice of São Paulo). After the judgment of the appeal, it is still possible to appeal to the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and the STF (Supreme Federal Court).

In March 2019, Lopes had been banned from the sport by the STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice) and fined R$1.6 million. A year later, he obtained an injunction from the TJSE (Court of Justice of Sergipe) and was released to train teams.

Coach denied allegations

In May 2018, during Senate testimony, the coach denied the allegations of sexual abuse. “Saying]that I’m a strict person, I’m an angry person, that I swear is one thing, but sexual harassment is something else.”

Lopes stated that the accusations were made because he was a coach who worked with high sports performance and said that children sometimes “practiced crying” because of the charges.

“I was a coach who worked with efficiency, it’s impossible for you to please everyone. I certainly caused much more discontent than satisfaction,” he said.