A 35-year-old man has been arrested in the Algarve for the rape and kidnaps of two women – one of them a British woman who was rescued after leaving an SOS note at a Burger King at Faro’s Forum Algarve shopping centre.
The man – who has dual Portuguese and Canadian nationality and who was reportedly found guilty of murder in Canada – has appeared before a judge and been named an ‘arguido’ (official suspect) along with a Moroccan woman who is said to be “linked” to the crimes.
Say reports, his modus operandi was to entice women to return to his home with him where he would then keep them against their will and rape them.
The first victim was a Brazilian woman who was held captive at the man’s Albufeira house for several days in May before she was able to escape when the two went out together to Boliqueime.
Weeks later in June, the man was apparently able to persuade another woman, described in the British press as a “seasonal worker in her twenties who has not been named”, to return to his home where he then kept her for around a week.
She was only able to escape when the man took her out to the Forum Algarve shopping centre in Faro and she was able to slip a note to a Burger King employee which allegedly read ‘Help me, I’ve been abducted’.
Thanks to the employee’s quick thinking, PSP police were alerted and intercepted the man and the woman while they were still inside the mall.
“The woman didn’t say much to start with but started opening up once she had been separated from the man and taken to a police station,” a police source told British press.
The same source added that the man would not initially force the woman to go home with him.
“’We’re not talking about women being snatched off the street,” the source said, adding that he “started what appeared to be a regular relationship, flirting with the women until they voluntarily agreed to go to his place and then he allegedly prevented them from leaving without his permission once they were inside.”
“Both women were kept at different times at the man’s home in the Albufeira area,” the source added.
Although these cases date back seven months, the man was only arrested this Tuesday following a house search which saw police seize several objects believed to be related to the crimes, including a replica of a 9mm handgun.
Speaking to SIC, PJ police said that the long wait was due to the “need to confirm the facts in this investigation which is still underway”.
