Serial killer jailed for 20 years could face 42 trials

A MAN accused of being Brazil’s most prolific serial killer was yesterday sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in the first of 42 possible trials for the killing and mutilation of boys.

Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito, a 41-year-old bike mechanic, was given 19 years for homicide and one year and eight months for hiding the body of the 15-year-old victim, the court said in statement.

Chagas now faces trial for 41 other murders committed between 1991 and 2003 in Maranahao and the neighbouring Amazon state of Para.

No date has been set for the next trials.

A series of murders of boys created terror in the two states, where many speculated the victims had been killed in black magic rituals because most of the boys had been found castrated.

Local human rights groups accused police of not doing enough to solve the crimes because most of the victims were poor.

Chagas could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for killing Jonathan Silva Vieira, but Judge Marcio Castro Brandao took account of testimony from psychologists that the defendant suffered from a mental disorder and was not completely in control of his actions, the court said.

Yesterday’s sentence was handed down after a trial that lasted just over two days.

At the trial’s opening, Chagas confessed to killing Silva in December 2003, saying sexual abuse he suffered as a child drove him to kill.

However, he told judge that he didn’t remember details.

Chagas was arrested in 2004 and charged with the murders of two young boys whose remains were found buried beneath the dirt floor of his shack in a poor neighbourhood. Vieira’s body was found later in a wooded area.