The family of a teenage girl who died after taking ecstasy in the company of a Brazilian meat-factory worker in 2004, has criticised the Brazilian embassy for helping him to leave the State before an inquest into her death. Kitty Holland reports from the Coroner's Court in Cavan.
Brian Maughan and his former wife Josephine Farrelly were speaking yesterday after a jury at Cavan Coroners Court returned a verdict of death by misadventure on their daughter Jamie Maughan (14). The inquest heard she had enough ecstasy in her blood to kill her. Her body was found behind a derelict house at Harmony Heights in Cavan town on July 2nd, 2004, across the road from a house rented by Brazilian meat workers.
Weldo Froitas Cavalcante, with whom she had a relationship, was subsequently convicted of her statutory rape. Cavalacante returned to Brazil last month with the assistance of the Brazilian embassy after his release from Cloverhill Prison.
Garda Carmel Henry of the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) told the court that when Cavlacante was released on January 7th her office was charged with arranging his removal from the State. When she was made aware of yesterday's inquest she cancelled his deportation. He was ordered to sign on at a Garda station daily until the inquest and GNIB retained his passport. However GNIB received a fax from the Brazilian embassy on January 10th "confirming Cavalcante had left the State" on a flight that morning to Paris and on to Sao Paulo. She said the embassy had paid for the flight and issued him with an emergency travel document.
Speaking after the inquest, Mr Maughan said: "It was ridiculous he was allowed to leave. It has been a cock-up from start to finish."
The family's solicitor, Larry Burke, said: "The ambassador from Brazil to Ireland must be approached by the Minister for Foreign Affairs forthwith and asked to explain this action and how the summons could be ignored, how the need for him to attend this inquest could be ignored."
A spokesman for the Brazilian embassy said last night it was their legal advice that Cavalcante was not legally obliged to attend the inquest. "He had nothing to add to his story and was very anxious to get home."
The inquest heard Ms Maughan's body was found by Alceu Tofanell - a colleague of Cavalcante's at Liffey Meats in Ballyjamesduff. Mr Tofanell told the court yesterday that after he had found Jamie's body, Cavalcante admitted to him that she had died in his house almost a week earlier. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Tofanell said Cavalcante had told him to tell anyone who asked that Jamie had left his house at 2.30am, on Sunday, June 27th. "At the time I tell him, he said 'My life is f****d'," Mr Tofanell told the inquest. "He wanted to clear his name. He wanted to take everything back."
Under cross-examination, Mr Burke asked Mr Tofanell: "Isn't it the case that Weldo Cavalcante was a drugs dealer?" Mr Tofanell replied: "I don't know about his business." The solicitor claimed Mr Cavalcante had supplied the girl with drugs. Mr Tofanell said: "I don't know I wasn't there". Ms Farrelly told the inquest she believed Mr Tofanell had helped Cavalcante move her daughter's body from the house he was renting. In later evidence, pathologist Margaret Bolster told the court Jamie had died several days before she was found and her body had been moved.
Ms Farrelly, described Jamie as "very outgoing . . . innocent - would always take whatever people say as gospel". She said she had not known Jamie was "going out" with Cavalcante until after her death.
"I am devastated and the whole family is trying to come to terms with the loss of our 14-year-old child."