What should have been a routine divorce session at a lawyer’s office in Vendas Novas (Alentejo) on Monday turned into a horrific hammer attack as the ‘aggrieved’ husband set about beating his former wife and her female lawyer. Office staff ran in horror as both women were seriously injured. They are now recovering in hospital as the attacker, who handed himself in to police hours later, remains in custody.
The horror played out during a meeting to settle the issue of property sharing. According to Correio da Manhã, the man had the hammer hidden away in a bag he brought with him, and “at a certain point” he brought it out to start attacking his former wife, a 56-year-old schoolteacher, beating her over the head.
The lawyer, also aged 56, tried to intervene, but the man is believed to have then begun beating her.
It was at this point, said the paper, that office personnel “ran from the building” and raised the alarm.
By the time help arrive, both women were “practically inanimate”, said CMTV’s report, and rushed to hospital, where their condition is not thought to be life threatening.
Their attacker then went ‘on the run’, disappearing from the town in his car and only turning himself into police hours later in Alcochete.
