PSP opened proceedings against chief accused of domestic violence

The PSP opened disciplinary proceedings against a police officer, who headed a domestic violence unit within the security force, four days after being arrested for mistreatment and threats against his wife and in-laws.

According to information provided to Lusa this Wednesday by the PSP, “by order of March 20, 2025, it was determined that disciplinary proceedings be initiated against the aforementioned police officer”, four days after his arrest by the Leiria PSP and the coercive measure of house arrest with electronic surveillance being applied to him.

The aforementioned disciplinary proceedings are at the Lisbon Metropolitan Police Command (Cometlis) and are awaiting a court decision, “which is why no relevant investigative steps have been taken to date,” the PSP added in the information sent this morning.

Currently under house arrest, the PSP chief was charged with one crime of aggravated domestic violence, nine crimes of threats, three crimes of entry into a place prohibited to the public and one crime of assault.

This defendant held leadership positions in the PSP unit that provides support to victims of domestic violence and, according to information provided to Lusa this Wednesday, at the time of the events, the head of the PSP “was no longer working at the RIAV [Integrated Response to Victim Support]”.

According to the indictment that Lusa had access to, the Public Prosecutor's Office believes that this PSP chief threatened his wife and in-laws and stressed that, at this moment, the victim "lives in constant fear, justifiably fearing that the accused will kill her, as well as her parents."

Throughout the 30 pages of this indictment, the Public Prosecutor's Office makes it clear that the head of the PSP “inflicted psychological abuse on his wife, causing her a state of permanent humiliation, anxiety and fear.”

"You're still going to be like Pavlov's dogs. When I look at you a certain way, you'll know what to do," the PSP chief reportedly told his wife.

Or even: “You’ll see what I’ll do to your family” and “the other day I dreamed that I was dousing you with gasoline, you were begging for your lives.”

The prosecution also describes that, on the day that PSP officers went to the couple's house to collect the weapons they were holding, as they were on psychiatric leave, he refused and threatened the woman again.

"Even if they take weapons, there are always bladed weapons, knives!" the Public Prosecutor's Office stated. "I'm going to kill myself, but I'm not going alone," he added.

The accusation against this PSP chief was reported on Tuesday by the newspaper Expresso.