The latest case of horrific domestic violence is reported to have been delivered to PSP police in Caldas da Rainha in the boot of her killer’s car.
Maria João Cordeiro, 52, had been a victim of repeated violence for the year and a half that she had been in a relationship, reports national tabloid Correio da Manhã.
“Tired of the constant verbal and physical aggressions, she summoned up the courage to present a complaint to the GNR” earlier this summer, writes the paper.
“Yesterday, after he had been officially made a defendant in the case for domestic violence, José Augusto Silva, 54, stabbed her to death”.
Maria João is the 23rd woman to die at the hands of a partner or former partner this year, the paper adds.
Silva – an odd-job man who worked in building sites and plant nurseries – is reported to have driven to his local police station 20 minutes after the killing in Delgada, Bombarral, with Maria João’s body in the boot of his car.
The story published in today’s paper carries a graphic photograph of the bloodstains on the road beside the open vehicle.
As Silva has been taken into preventive custody – in which CM claims he will remain until his trial – Maria João’s family, friends and workmates have been left in states of shock.
“We are trying not to tell our residents”, Lígia Romão, the director of the old people’s home where Maria João worked told the paper.
Romão described the fatal attack, which took place outside the Lar Familiar de Esperança as Maria João left for the evening.
“He appeared suddenly and started continually and relentlessly stabbing her in the face, neck and chest.
A colleague saw the whole thing and called the GNR”, she added.
“We knew of the relationship but Maria João was very discreet and never talked about her private life, so none of us could have imagined anything like this would happen”.
According to CM, Silva initiated the attack as he was “irritated” that his former partner had made an official complaint against him, and “wanted to get his own back”.
Maria João leaves an adoptive daughter, now adult, writes CM, and a younger daughter who will be 13 today (Saturday).
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Photo: Carlos Barroso/ CM
