€5,000 compensation dubbed “a pittance”
Joana Nascimento’s parents have expressed their outrage over the eight-year sentence handed to their daughter’s ex-boyfriend, who stabbed her twice in the neck in Lagoa a week before she died from an infection in her injuries.
They have also taken offence at the €5,000 compensation that the 22-year-old has been ordered to pay the victim’s family, saying that their loss has been reduced to the payment of a “pittance.”
Telma Nascimento, Joana’s mother, has told CMTV that she will “go as far as they’ll let me” to seek justice for her daughter.
“I do not accept that this sentence is enough. I am going to appeal and seek justice for my Joana and all the Joanas of the world,” she said, calling for Portugal’s maximum 25-year sentence.
“If it weren’t for the stabs and where they occurred, my daughter would not have died,” Telma Nascimento insists.
Manuel Jacinto, Joana’s father, agrees.
“If he hadn’t stabbed my daughter, she wouldn’t have died. She wouldn’t have gone to the hospital; nothing would have happened. He is the only one responsible,” he said.
However, the family has confirmed it is seeking compensation from Portimão Hospital for medical malpractice.
“How is someone released from the hospital on the same day that they are stabbed and told to take a ben-u-ron (paracetamol) if they have pain or develop a fever. It is a huge lack of respect. I do not understand how something like this can happen,” Manuel Jacinto said.
On Monday, Tiago Souto was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison by Portimão Court for the “attempted murder” of Joana Nascimento.
The case dates back to June 15, 2023, when he attacked her in her car after she left work, stabbing her twice in the neck.
The 26-year-old victim was treated at Portimão Hospital and discharged on the same day but was hospitalised a week later due to a serious infection that developed in the wounds.
Joana Nascimento was taken by helicopter to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital, where she died on the night of June 23 of a post-traumatic abscess, which had been complicated by sepsis, according to the autopsy report.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had called for a 14-year jail sentence for Tiago Souto, 22, although the judge announced an eight-year sentence at the verdict reading this Monday (May 6).
While the judge admitted that the sentence may not seem as harsh as expected, she explained that the final decision took into account that Joana Nascimento’s death was “not directly caused by the knife attack.
“However, there was the intention to take her life,” the judge added.
The judge also advised Tiago Souto to use his time in jail to “think about the path he is treading and change his behaviour, because he is still very young,” and urged him to stop a series of “escalating” episodes of violence.
