The family of a Lagoa man brutally attacked in his office before being shot mercilessly in the head at last saw justice done in a Portimão courtroom on Friday.
José “Quebra Telha” Ganhão, the man who had come to call their loved one “paizinho” (Daddy), was sent to prison for a total of 21 years after the court ruled that he had committed a “macabre premeditated murder of atrocious violence” – all for the sake of a safe-load of money.
As the family’s lawyer considered after the verdict, “justice has been done”.
The horrific story of how 75-year-old scrap merchant Luís Duarte met his end in the office of his scrap-yard Auto Peçusa in Parchal, Lagoa, was splashed across the media last year. It was all the more shocking that the man sought for the killing was an odd-jobber who Duarte had taken under his wing many years previously, not only giving him work, but a place to stay as well.
Ganhão, 44, initially went on the run with the €10,000 he had stolen from Duarte’s safe.
The court heard how he had surprised the older man early one morning in his office, beating him with a stick before shooting him twice in the head.
Three days later, Ganhão was run to ground in a café in nearby Odiáxere – not by police, but by an angry mob, including Duarte’s son, who wanted vengeance.
Police said at the time that if they had not intervened and arrested Ganhão, he would not have stood a chance.
Now, he is beginning an 18-year stretch for qualified murder along with two concurrent terms of three years for the illegal possession of a weapon, two for simple theft and six-months for theft from a vehicle.
Ganhão was further condemned to pay the family €51,150 in compensation.
By NATASHA DONN natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
