Man guilty in body in bog murder

A 22-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of a Brazilian man in a bog in north Kerry in 2012.

John Paul Cawley denied the murder.

Bruno Lemes de Souza, aged 28, a member of the large Brazilian community in Gort, Co Galway, called to a house near Ballyduff in connection with a car deal in mid-February 2012, the seven-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in Tralee heard.

His body was recovered from a drain in a remote bog more than three weekslater. The killing of Mr de Souza was “savage” the prosecution said. The set of facts the jury had to listen to was “one of the worst “in any murder in the history of the State defence counsel agreed

in the closing speech to the jury.

One of a family of 11, John Paul Cawley was homeless until his sister Sandra took him to live with her at Ardoughter, Ballyduff , along with her then partner – Brazilian man Wenio Rodriguez da Silva – and two children aged 1 and 2, one of whom was Mr da Silva’s. A

younger brother Charlie was also there.

John Paul Cawley of Ardoughter, Ballyduff , Co Kerry, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bruno Lemes de Souza at Shronowen Bog, Tullamore, Listowel, on February 16 or 17, 2012.

Mr Cawley inflicted the first stab wound – but only that, and the remaining 63 stab wounds were inflicted by Wenio da Silva, he told gardaí.

After an hour and 24 minutes deliberating, the jury in Tralee on Friday returned a unanimous verdict of guilty yesterday.

A stark and clear image was held to throughout by the prosecution counsel Conor Devally.

Three persons had “gone into the darkness” up a boggy lane. One of the men was being led

by a rope. Two had knives.

“Three men went up a bog road – two with knives and one man with his hands tied... it was evident only two would come back,” Mr Devally said.

Before being brought to the bog in the dead of night, Mr de Souza was held captive in the attic of the two-storey house in Ardoughter, his hands tied to his feet with clothes line twine.

Under guard in the attic by Charlie Cawley, when Mr de Souza asked for something to eat, yellow ‘itchy’ insulation was stuffed into his mouth, the accused told gardaí.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster took well over an hour to list the injuries to Mr de Souza.

There were lacerations of the skull by a blunt weapon; consistent with a heavy torque

wrench. There were 64 wounds or lacerations including through the Adam’s apple, rib cage, lung, liver, left kidney and left ventricle of the heart.

There was a suggestion that Wenio owed money; that the late Mr de Souza was going around the large Brazilian community in Gort, Ireland’s “Little Rio” saying Sandra Cawley was probably “hot”.

There appeared to be no motivation for the appalling killing, Anthony Sammon, defending, said.

On the edge of a dyke, in the dark night, John Paul Cawley was the first to stab Bruno de Souza , he told gardaí when arrested.

Asked a number of times why he had stabbed Mr de Souza whom he had only met hours before he replied “I don’t know”.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy sentenced Mr Cawley to life, backdating the sentence to March 2012.