The man accused of murdering and dismembering British teenager Cara Marie Burke will plead temporary insanity at his trial, his lawyer said.
Carlos Trajano, who is representing Burke’s confessed killer, Mohammed Carvalho dos Santos, 20, said his client was “totally dependent” on a range of drugs including crack, cocaine and a drug known in Brazil as merla — a potent mixture of coca paste and battery acid which is sold openly on the streets of Jardim Novo Mundo, the poor district where Burke spent much of her time in Goiania.
“He took everything you can possibly imagine — he even sniffed cooking gas,” said Trajano, whose client faces up to 36 years in jail if convicted. “The crime took place after he’d been awake for four days using cocaine. When the girl arrived he was using crack. She picked up the telephone and said she was going to call the police and he had an attack of rage.”
As the search for the head, legs and arms of the 17-year-old continued on Sunday, further details emerged about Dos Santos’ background.
Born in a poor suburb of Goiania in 1987 his father was a driver for the city’s military police. In 1989, aged 28, he was tortured and executed with a single shot to the head. His mangled body was recovered two days later abandoned outside the city and taken to the same mortuary where Burke’s torso is held.
In an interview with the Diario da Manha newspaper Dos Santos’ mother, Ivanyr, speaking from London, said her son had never recovered from his father’s murder.
“They shot him in the leg, the face, it smashed his face,” said Ivanyr, who works as a maid in London. “[Mohammed] loved his father.”
Ivanyr dos Santos said her son used to pelt police cars that came near their home with stones.
Trajano said his client had previously been charged with attempted homicide and car theft.
“My son is not this monster that society thinks he is. He always helped people. He has a good heart,” Ivanyr told the Diario da Manha.
Asked what she would say to Burke’s family, she replied: “I don’t have the words.”
ANTIGUA NIGHTMARE
In other crime news, a newlywed shot on the last day of his Caribbean honeymoon has died, a British hospital said on Sunday.
Morriston Hospital in Swansea, Wales, said brain stem tests showed that Benjamin Mullany — comatose since he was shot in the head in Antigua last week — was dead. He had been on life support systems.
His bride, Catherine Mullany, was killed in the same attack.
In Antigua, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer vowed to bring to justice whoever attacked the couple and offered condolences to Benjamin Mullany’s relatives: “We express our deep sympathies to the family of Benjamin and pray that God will give them comfort in this time of sorrow.”
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS