Accused’s sister says she heard stab claim

The sister of a man accused of the murder of a 28-year-old Brazilian man from Gort, Co Galway, whose body was found in a drain in a bog in north Kerry has said she heard her brother say he had stabbed the deceased “in the heart”.

Prosecution witness Sandra Cawley, was continuing her evidence on day two of the murder trial at the Central Criminal Court in Tralee. John Paul Cawley (now aged 22) of Ardoughter, Ballyduff, Co Kerry, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bruno Lemes de Souza at Shronowen Bog, Tullamore, Listowel on February 16 or 17, 2012.

Sandra Cawley was living in Ardoughter with her brother John Paul and another brother Charlie, and her then partner, Brazilian man Wenio Rodriguez da Silva, and her two young children aged one and two.

Ms Cawley said Bruno de Souza had phoned her for directions to call to their house to sell her ex-partner Wenio da Silva a car. Mr de Souza was not known to her.

Mr de Souza arrived at the house on February 16. Bruno and Wenio had been in the kitchen, she said.

Ms Cawley said Wenio da Silva left the kitchen and arrived into the sitting room in an “agitated” state and told her: “Bruno is going around Gort saying to other Brazilians your voice sounded sexy and you probably look hot!” “He (Wenio) said he was going to beat him up and I said why are you going to beat up somebody over something stupid like that,” she told Anthony Sammon, senior defence counsel who cross examined her. Later she heard a noise .

Bruno was in the corner with his hands over his head and Wenio had a wheel brace in his hands, she said. Bruno asked her to call the guards, but Wenio told her to get out. She did not call the gardaí or run to a neighbour for help.

She was “petrified” of Wenio, “who had beaten her up a number of occasions,”.

She then told of being driven with the children to Lisselton Cross, to a remote bog road. She saw Bruno being led down towards the bog held between her brother John Paul and her former partner Wenio.

During the drive home, Wenio and John Paul spoke about what went on in the bog, Ms Cawley said.

“They were saying the way they stabbed Bruno. John Paul said “I stabbed Bruno once in the heart,”, she heard them say in the car.

The trial presided over by Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy continues. A jury of four women and eight men has been sworn in.