Man accused of trying to kill PSP agent in Leiria says he doesn’t remember

A man accused of trying to kill a Public Security Police (PSP) officer in Leiria with a knife while he was present at a domestic violence situation said in court on Tuesday that he does not remember.

“I don’t remember that stabbing,” the 41-year-old defendant, who is responsible for the offenses of domestic violence, abuse, attempted qualified murder and possession of a prohibited weapon, told a panel of High Court judges. Court of Leiria.

The case dates back to March 31, 2023, when the PSP was called in connection with domestic violence in a house in Leiria, according to the indictment of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

Among other things, the deputy said that while the defendant and his partner were in the room, she “called out to her daughter asking for help” and told her that “the defendant wanted to kill her.”

After the daughter entered the room, the suspect, a foreigner, pushed her “with force, causing her to fall onto the bed, breaking it,” and punched the woman in the face, killing the daughter’s nephew and allowing the victims to take refuge in another room.

In this case, there was a woman’s nephew who leaned his body against the inside door to prevent the accused from entering, who meanwhile went to get an iron and returned to the room, asking his wife and daughter to leave, “continuing to state that he was going to kill” his partner and break his daughter’s legs.

After the woman contacted the police, upon arrival at the scene, the police ordered the accused, who had meanwhile gone to get two knives, to leave and throw them, but he “not only did not comply with the order by staying at home, he told the police that he would kill them, if they come in.”

When he left the house, the accused was holding “a knife in each hand” toward the officers, and one of the officers used pepper spray to subdue him, the deputy said, adding that the suspect fled home, but returned soon after, and when… The same agent approached him and hit him.

The PSP agent was taken to a hospital in Leiria and early the next morning transferred to a hospital in Coimbra, from where he was discharged on April 3.

On the 18th of the same month, the policeman was admitted to the emergency department of the Hospital Center and University of Coimbra after a pulmonary infarction resulting from a “knife injury to the right great saphenous vein”, where he remained in hospital until the twenty-seventh.

At trial, the man, who was detained preventively, denied attacking his partner and threatening to kill him, and that he was going to break his daughter’s legs.

“I wasn’t going to hit them, I was going to talk,” he said, admitting that he “drank a lot of whiskey and wine” that day and started drinking “about five or six years ago.”

The suspect also assured that when he went to get two knives from the kitchen, he did not want to “hurt” the police, but “was going to cut his wrists.”

“It was for me not to cause harm,” he assured.

The defendant also denied telling officers he would kill them if they entered the house, claiming he was hit “with a baton in the head” and “pepper sprayed in the face” and had no memory of what happened next.

“I don’t know [como é que o polícia ficou ferido]”, he asserted.

At this morning’s hearing, at the request of the prosecutor, the court ordered the receipt of a certificate of initiation of criminal proceedings regarding the alleged false statements made by the accused’s partner, who became his assistant, given the discrepancies with previously made statements.

Later in the morning, the court began hearing from the wounded 43-year-old PSP agent, who is also an assistant in the trial, which continues to be monitored by representatives of various medical specialties.

The hearing will continue in the afternoon.