A serial hit-and-run taxi driver has finally been jailed for 14 years and nine months.
Joel Franco “had already been involved in three incidents where he ran over pedestrians” in the capital, Correio da Manhã writes today.
In one case, the pedestrian died – but Franco was absolved in a court of law because ‘blame’ was laid on the victim (who was not in court to defend himself).
This time, however, there were no doubts – as there arguably should never have been.
Franco is the taxi driver who ran over university student Afonso Gonçalves on Avenida de Estados Unidos de América in Lisbon on September 8 last year – and kept driving. He did not even slow down.
Had it not been for diligent PSP police work, Joel Franco may not have been ‘found’, along with his taxi – which showed clear signs of having impacted something/ someone.
But, at the time (48-hours after Afonso Gonçalves’ tragic death), Franco was left to enjoy freedom, albeit facing possible charges of negligent homicide and failure to provide assistance.
CNN Portugal carried out an investigation, highlighting Franco’s checkered past – and eventually he was taken into preventive custody from which he will have heard this week’s verdict.
For the parents of Afonso Gonçalves – and the families of other hit-and-run victims whose deaths are rarely avenged – this was some consolation for the campaign they have been waging calling for tougher sentences for these kinds of killers.
There are so many where Joel Franco came from. As Afonso Gonçalves father acknowledged yesterday: “The Justice of men has been done, but the penalty for us, the family, has been a life term. We are going to have another Christmas with an empty chair.”
Source: Correio da Manhã
