Accustomed to working from an early age, Genário's life changed in 2017, when he was sentenced in a monocratic decision for rape against his stepdaughters, then 9 and 12 years old. The alleged crime was denounced by the girls and their mother, who had a romantic relationship with Genario. In the formal complaint, the Paraíba Public Ministry (MPPB), taking into account the testimony of the victims and their mother, reported that the alleged abuses occurred between 2015 and 2016 in a house where the family lived, in the municipality of Junco do Seridó. False testimonies led to conviction Taken to justice, Genario was found guilty and began serving time in August 2017 at the Santa Luzia Public Jail, staying in a wing dedicated to prisoners for sexual crimes. “The evidence the judge used to convict Genario was only the testimonies of the children. There were no conjuncture exams, nothing. We appealed, we spent two years in agony trying to show the court that an innocent man was convicted and we appealed, ”said Genrário's lawyer, João Martins. On appeal, the defense was able to prove that the mother induced her daughters to lie and accuse Genario of rape. Everything would have been motivated by a “dispute” over the house where they lived, which had been left by the girls' father to them. According to the lawyer, the girls did not like Genário and started to say that he was dating their mother and had gone to live in the house to take her for him, even though he had not thought of it. Upon learning of the daughters' complaint, the mother induced the girls to accuse Genario of rape.