As divorce lawyer Natália de Sousa was buried yesterday in Monção – after literally having her skull crushed in a horrific outburst of case-related rage – a group of 100 lawyers, magistrates and court officials have talked of their fears in going about their daily business.
According to president of the courts in the Baixo Vouga judicial district, lawyers and magistrates are constantly at the receiving end of violence and threats of aggression – particularly when they are dealing with cases involving young children and family courts.
“I myself had to be accompanied for several months by PSP security guards after an attempted attack and threats of aggression received during a trial over drug-trafficking,” Judge Paulo Brandão told Correio da Manhã.
Brandão and a number of others in his profession met this week in Aveiro, in front of the courthouse, to pay their respects to Natália de Sousa who was brutally killed by the husband of one of her divorce clients last Monday.
Francisco Bord’Água is reported to have “grabbed the head” of the 50-year-old lawyer and “smashed it against a wall until she died”.
The horrific killing left a community in shock and a husband, son and family utterly devastated.
Bord’Água’s wife, Anabela, has told reporters that she was divorcing her husband after years of domestic violence.
Already this year, incidents of violence against women in Portugal have seen 18 deaths in just four months. That is a “record”, Leonor Monteiro of the victim support group Projecto Criar told us.
Domestic violence has become the country’s most worrying type of crime – and as one journalist remarked recently, now more lethal for women than road accidents and cancer.
