A BRAZILIAN man accused of murdering his stepfather told gardaí the dead man used to beat him and his mother.
The Central Criminal Court, sitting in Dundalk, yesterday heard that Claudio Fernandes (33) was found with a knife embedded in his head on the main street in Duleek, Co Meath, on the night of July 29th last year. The six-inch blade was in his skull and only the handle could be seen. He died 11 days later.
Andre “Junio” Bastos (18), who lived with his mother and step-father in a mobile home at Bellewstown, has pleaded not guilty to the murder and not guilty of manslaughter.
The prosecution told the jury it would hear the dead man and the accused had gone to a pub in Duleek, some five miles from Bellewstown, at about 6pm. Mr Bastos left the pub at about 9.45pm but had taken a lead from Mr Fernandes’s car to make sure his stepfather did not leave Duleek without him.
The accused went to a nearby house where a number of other Brazilians were living when, Michael Dureck, prosecuting, said, his stepfather came shouting for him to fix the car. The accused went outside and was chased by Mr Fernandes and was verbally abused by him, the court heard.
Another Brazilian man came out of the house to try and stop the row and, Mr Dureck said, then Mr Bastos returned to the house and got the knife. The altercation continued and the accused stabbed his stepfather in the head.
Gardaí arrested the accused just after 3am at the mobile home and in an interview a short time later he accepted he had stuck the knife into Mr Fernandes. He told gardaí “many times he beat me” and that he had also beaten the accused’s mother, Maura Bastos.
Osmair Souza, who worked with Mr Fernandes in a meat factory, said the first day he met him he said he had stabbed people four times including his wife twice. The witness knew Mr Fernandes used to beat his wife. Mr Fernandes also said he put Mr Bastos out of his house in Brazil when he was 10 years old because he was not his son.
Anna Paulio Rodrigious lived with Ms Bastos and the deceased for a while and witnessed him punching and kicking her. Ms Rodrigious was in the kitchen in Duleek when the accused took the knife. He told her he was going to “kill him – I will kill him”.
The trial continues.