In a week where killings and killers filled Portuguese newspapers, one story has particularly hogged the headlines. It centres on a man handing himself in to police saying: “I don’t want to kill any more people” – while another serves jail time for one of his murders.
For family members of the man jailed two years ago for a crime he consistently said he had not committed, the news has come as a godsend. But the release of Armindo Castro will be far from instant.
Talking to newspapers on Wednesday, Castro’s aunt explained: “He is very calm. He said he has always told the truth, that he was innocent, and he knew that one day the truth would come out.
“He knows that all this will take time though, and that if he is home for Christmas it will be very good.”
Legally, there are a number of avenues that lie ahead, and much will depend on police establishing the truth behind the new confessor’s claims.
Artur Gomes appeared before magistrates at Marco de Canaveses yesterday, charged only with the murder earlier this year of 39-year-old neighbour Sónia Soares in Felgueiras.
The murder of 73-year-old Odete Castro that he claims to have committed in Famalicão two years ago was not on the charge sheet.
According to news reports, police plan to further interrogate Gomes and get a full list of the crimes he claims to have committed.
As to the “reason” for killing his neighbour in Felgueiras, Gomes is reported to have said that it was for money, and that he was forced into the crime by his wife.
Both Gomes and his wife are now in police custody.
Elsewhere, it was a black week for Portugal, with deaths and murders highlighted almost every day.
In Leiria, a former lover shot his ex as she left her home for work; in Albufeira a waiter was stabbed in the chest as he stepped out of his home to answer a phone call and in Castelo Branco a 33-year-old Spanish woman went on trial for the murder of an 82-year-old shopkeeper.
