“He called me very calmly and said: ‘Joao, your mother has died.’ At the start of the trial on Tuesday, Joao Ferreira, 39, recalled in tears the morning his father Adriano killed his mother Margarida with multiple stab wounds in the bed where she was sleeping in Taipas, Guimarães. The 63-year-old killer confessed to the crime and told the group he wanted to apologize to his two children. During his testimony, which he gave in his father’s absence, João cried several times, recalling the horror his family had endured over more than 40 years of marriage. “My mother was beaten for the slightest reason,” he said. He recalled several episodes of brutal attacks and admitted that he was very afraid of Adriano Ferreira. “I even took my mother out of the house, and he called me and threatened that if she didn’t come back, he would kill us both. I never had the courage to stand up to him,” he lamented. Margarida Silva, 62, was killed on June 23 last year as she slept.