By Julio Blanca
Jun 10, 2024, 7:16 PM EDT
Juan Darthés, Brazilian actor, known for the soap opera ‘Patito Feo’, was sentenced to six years in prison on July 10. This is because he was found guilty of statutory rape against actress Thelma Fardin.
The Argentine media Infobae confirmed the news with Carla Junqueira, the artist’s lawyer, who indicated that a court in Sao Paulo acted in the case. Now, Darthés will be detained in a semi-open prison.
After the decision, the lawyer gave a press conference with her client and also Paola García Rey, deputy director of Amnesty International Argentina.
The activist indicated: “Many times childhoods, children and women do not dare to break the silence and report.”
For her part, Thelma Fardin, the victim, spoke of this victory in her life: “Thank you all for being here, for still being here after so many years. Of course, it is a day with many emotions, I am very moved, first of all thanks to all those people who dared to speak many years ago after that press conference after I made my complaint.”
The artist considered that this movement that was generated allowed justice to be achieved.
Fardin commented that he had lost hope that the actor would be tried. “Unfortunately, even though my case received justice today, it is not the reality of most cases and that is why today this sentence has to be a message of hope for those people who today are still suffering some type of abuse. It has to be a hope so that they think that although it is very difficult, that although the person they have to report is powerful, they have many tools, there is a possibility of reparation in justice, as is the case today in my case,” he commented.
He called to listen to victims of abuse, but above all to be empathetic. “Justice must also be built by each of us and we have a responsibility in that sense,” she added.
The artist’s complaint indicated that she was abused when she was 16 years old and the actor was 45. All this while they were visiting Nicaragua on a tour of ‘Patito Feo’. In her statement she indicated a few years ago: “It was in 2009. She was 16 years old and we were on a children’s tour. I was a girl. The only adult actor was 45 years old. He started kissing my neck and I told him no. He grabbed my hand and made me touch him and he told me ‘look how you get’, making me feel my erection. “He threw me on the bed and started performing oral sex on me.”
Then he added: “He climbed on top and penetrated me, until someone knocked on the door, I stopped, Juan got off me and I left.”
This case has received a lot of media attention, due to the seriousness of the terrible events that have now found justice.