Some facts about Leonor Cipriano.
First, she claimed that she had seen who had assaulted her, but later she denied this. She said that there was a blue plastic bag over her head, but soon afterwards changed this to saying it was ‘green or blue’.
During the investigation into her allegation, she said that she had been assaulted ‘more than once’, but during the trial, she stated it that it happened only once. She said she knew the time of the beating - around 8.00pm - because she had looked at the clock in the room where she had been beaten. However, during the trial, she was asked to describe the room and did so without referring to any clock.
Despite having made a full confession before being convicted in 2005, she told the Court: “I don’t remember having confessed”, she told the court. Confessions are not admissible in court in Portugal unless the defendant repeats them in open court. Leonor Cipriano did repeat her confession during her trial in 2005. That makes it all the more strange that she changed her mind two years later, saying she didn’t remember having confessed.
Leonor Cipriano originally claimed she had been beaten by PJ inspectors, but when asked to pick them out of a line-up, she couldn't do so. She then changed her story to say that the PJ inspectors ‘must have arranged for another person or persons unknown to come into the police station and beat her’. Later she changed her mind once again claiming she was beaten by the PJ but couldn't identify them because a bag was placed over her head during the beating.
Leonor Cipriano never previously alleged that Goncalo Amaral had personally laid a hand on her until the Court hearing in Faro. Yet, in the Faro court, Leonor Cipriano changed her story once again and alleged that Goncalo Amaral had hit her during the beating.
In her original statement, Leonor Cipriano said she knew the time the assaults on her took place because there was a clock on the wall in the room, and that it was approximately from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. Yet three of the named PJ inspectors accused of beating her were not even in the building at that time; they did not sign into the police station until 8.00 pm on the day in question.
At one point during the beating she claimed she was forced to kneel on broken glass. But there appears to be no record of damage to her knees or legs that would be consistent with such a serious incident. When originally asked by the Prison Governor at Odemira Prison to explain her injuries, Leonor Cipriano failed to implicate any police officers.
When Leonor Cipriano was asked in Court to give the names of the people she was accusing, she pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. A senior prison officer gave evidence that he was told by the Director of the Prison where Cipriano was being held (Odemira Prison), to change medical reports.
Leonor Cipriano denied that she ever had a female lawyer, however, she did have a female lawyer present when she made her original confession.
Little wonder therefore that she received an additional sentence for perjury.