11/11/2023 – 8:37
After 20 years since the murder of young couple Liana Friedenbach and Felipe Caffé, the confessed perpetrator of the crimes, Roberto Aparecido Alves Cardoso, known as Champinha, will receive therapeutic and psychosocial care accompanied by a committee of control bodies. At the time of the crimes marked by extreme brutality, including kidnapping, rape, torture and murders, in November 2003, Chapinha was 16 years old. Since then, he has been held in state custody, and since 2006, he has been hospitalized for mental health treatment.
Last Monday, the 6th, the government of São Paulo and the Public Defender’s Office defined the creation of an interdisciplinary committee to monitor the therapeutic care that, according to the government, is already offered to the five occupants of the Experimental Health Unit where Champinha is hospitalized. . The unit, administered by the State Department of Health, was created to receive children under 18 with personality disorders.
According to the State Department of Health (SES), the committee was established by resolution published in the Official State Gazette and follows an agreement with the Court of Justice, Public Prosecutor’s Office and Public Defender’s Office so that these control bodies begin to monitor hospitalized patients who are under the responsibility of the department in the Experimental Unit.
The team that will make up the committee is still being formed. “The publication allows for greater transparency in the monitoring desired by the control bodies”, he said, in a note.
The Public Defender’s Office was the author of the public civil action that resulted in the agreement. In the process, the defenders claimed that the unit where Champinha was admitted did not offer effective psychosocial support. The structure, with capacity for 40 people, has 24-hour security, administrative and cleaning staff, and a healthcare team including nurses and doctors, including a psychiatrist. Now, it will be supervised by the committee.
High degree of psychopathy
The unit aims to house inmates with a high degree of psychopathy who, in addition to posing a risk to society, pose a risk of death to other inmates living in the same space. The length of stay is defined by the Court based on medical reports. “Since the opening of the unit, there has been a unique therapeutic plan applied and monitored by a multidisciplinary team. SES provides inmates with medical staff, medications, as well as clinical and psychiatric monitoring,” says a note from SES.
Public defender Daniel Secco, from the Children and Youth Center of the Defender’s Office, said that the creation of the committee is important because it will now allow monitoring that is mandatory by law. “The need to monitor, evaluate and reevaluate mental health conditions, especially when they involve deprivation of liberty, is a duty brought by national and international legislation. This was not being done,” he said. According to the public defender, the commission will assess whether the treatments offered to these people are adequate. “This is important, it was the right decision,” he said.
The crimes
In 2003, when he was 16 years old, Champinha was arrested with four other men accused of killing Liana, then aged 16, and Felipe, aged 19. They were captured while camping in Embu-Guaçu, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, taken into captivity and subjected to torture sessions before being murdered.
The young woman was raped by Champinha, who also offered her to his accomplices. Only one of them didn’t rape her. She spent two more days suffering abuse from Champinha, until she was murdered by him with a machete, on a forest trail. Champinha was sentenced to three years of internment at Fundação Casa – the maximum time allowed by the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA).
Civil interdiction
Before the deadline expired, in 2006, the Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained Champinha’s civil interdiction from the courts, based on reports that identified him as a psychopath, with a personality disorder and mild mental retardation, capable of committing irrational acts.
A report from the Legal Medical Institute (IML) diagnosed “organic personality disorder” and recommended his psychiatric hospitalization as he was “a highly dangerous individual”. Another official report, from the Institute of Social Medicine and Criminology (Imesc) indicated that the patient had Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), a mental illness with no cure. The report stated that Champinha was extremely impulsive and did not feel guilty about anything.
In 2007, he escaped from the unit, but was recaptured the next day. In 2019, the ban was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ). That year, he participated in a rebellion in which an employee of the unit was taken hostage. Subsequently, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) confirmed the decision and ordered that Champinha continue receiving treatment at the Experimental Health Unit.
At the time, Champinha’s transfer to the Prison Unit Hospital for Custody and Psychiatric Treatment of Taubaté, in the interior, was considered, but the law only provided for this hospitalization for adults who committed crimes.
The others involved in the couple’s death were sentenced to 124, 110, 47 and 6 years in prison, respectively, depending on the degree of involvement in the crimes. The case generated great repercussion and led to movements to review the law on the age of criminal responsibility in Brazil. The report contacted lawyer Daniel Adolpho Daltin Assis, appointed in the process as Champinha’s defender, and until 8pm yesterday did not receive a response.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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