Torch-wielding killer faces trial for domestic violence

The 35-year-old man, one of the perpetrators of the 2012 murder of a scrap metal dealer in Toche, Kantanhede, will face trial again on Tuesday for domestic violence and animal cruelty after being released from prison in 2022.

The accused, sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison for his role in the murder of a scrap metal dealer in Tocha in 2012, will stand trial in Coimbra on Tuesday at 9:30 am in a trial in which he is accused of domestic violence against his then-girlfriend, with whom he lived from March to August 2022.

According to the allegation, which Lusa’s agency had access to, the man appeared to be “dominant, jealous and possessive” from the very beginning of the relationship, not allowing the offended woman to leave the house alone and suspecting any interaction she might have had with some of the man’s figures, including his stepfather and his brothers.

During about five months of marriage, the accused tore at her clothes, which, in his opinion, attracted the attention of men, forbade her to talk to men, and regularly boasted to his girlfriend that he was arrested for murder, describing this episode to him. it happened ten years ago, in Tocha, where he led a group of four young men who robbed, kidnapped and killed a 90-year-old elderly man.

“He also said that he could kill a man with just two fingers, and that he learned this in prison,” emphasizes the public ministry, which points to several moments of domestic violence in a short period of relationship with constant episodes of jealousy. and physical attacks.

At the end of April, the girlfriend, the defendant, his mother and stepfather went fishing on the lake in Toch, and the accused decided to leave alone, not allowing the victim to go with him.

Arriving home, the woman, who was then pregnant, found that the defendant’s clothes had disappeared, leaving a farewell letter “where he said that he was tired of being deceived and that she could stay with her stepfather.”

Two days later, according to the prosecutor’s office, after returning home, the man accused his girlfriend of having a romantic relationship with her stepfather.

According to the prosecution, he threatened the woman with a machete, said he would kill her, laid her on her stomach and broke her nose and part of her head.

The victim tried to call the police, but the defendant broke her mobile phone and squeezed her neck until the woman lost consciousness.

In early May, again on a fishing trip with his stepfather and mother, the defendant again became jealous of his mother’s partner and squeezed his girlfriend’s neck.

The stepfather, who was watching what was happening, tried to intervene, but the defendant hit him with his fist.

In the middle of the same month, the victim had a miscarriage, to which the defendant said that “it’s good that this happened, because she is not worthy to be a mother,” the indictment says.

According to prosecutors, in June, the defendant took the cat, which was his pet, put it in a suitcase “and beat her until she almost died.”

After burying him still alive, he told his girlfriend that he “could do the same to her,” the ministry said.

At the end of the same month, the victim was with her mother in Figueira da Foz and told her about the episodes of violence she had been subjected to.

The mother did not want to let her daughter leave the house, but ended up leaving after the defendant forced her to return to shared housing, stating that if she did not return, “the mother would suffer.”

On August 2, the victim told the defendant that she intended to break off the relationship, and he became aggressive, saying that “she will only leave there dead.”

The defendant pointed a knife at his stomach and hit him with a machete on his left arm.

As a result, the victim managed to escape to the street, and later she was taken to her mother’s house.

The man is responsible for the crime of domestic violence, as well as death and cruelty to a pet.