The 16th Criminal Law Chamber of the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJSP) accepted the appeal filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and sentenced a man to two years and four months in prison for causing serious bodily harm, resulting from his psychological harassment of his ex-wife.
The defendant engaged in various forms of psychological violence against his ex-wife, including persistent stalking, the creation of defamatory dossiers, and constant harassment. The forensic analysis confirmed that his actions resulted in severe psychological harm, affecting the victim’s mental integrity to the point of hindering her daily activities.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the appeal after the decision that downgraded the charge of bodily harm, reverting it to a misdemeanor as provided for in article 65 of Decree-Law 3,688/1941, considering that although the technical report had proven the materiality of the serious bodily harm, there was not sufficient evidence to establish a causal link between the defendant’s actions and the psychological damage suffered by the victim.
In their appeal, prosecutors argued that the defendant should be convicted based on the original charges. The victim, acting as a co-prosecutor, emphasized that the body of evidence already supported a causal connection between the defendant’s actions and the psychological trauma she experienced.
The judge responsible for analyzing the case at the TJSP stated that the set of evidence unequivocally demonstrates the existence of a causal link between the appellant’s actions and the serious bodily injury suffered by the victim and emphasized that the defendant’s conduct was the clear cause of the injuries suffered by the victim, prohibiting the man from approaching within 300 meters of the victim, his family members and witnesses, as well as from establishing any type of contact with them, under penalty of imprisonment.
