Briton Joel Eldridge’s skull had been shattered into more than 40 pieces
Three Portuguese judges have acquitted the sole suspects in a hideous gangland-style killing of a young British man in central Portugal nearly seven years ago.
According to a report in the Daily Mail today, their decision represents a “massive setback” for a six-year police investigation that involved officers in both the UK and Portugal.
In the dock (only figuratively speaking) were “a drug dealer currently serving life in a UK prison for killing a mother and her four-year-old son” and an accomplice whose current whereabouts are unknown.
In other words, it was already a ‘complicated situation’, further confused by what the Mail calls ‘stop-start’ court proceedings (no doubt caused by the ongoing strike by court clerks).
According to the paper, “A gut-wrenching indictment accused convicted killer Jacob Barnard, 35, of smashing Joel’s skull into more than 40 pieces with an axe after attacking him with a stun gun and stabbing and shooting him.
“He was charged with murder and desecrating a body alongside alleged accomplice Joshua Sherwood, 31, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire” – Sherwood being the defendant whose current whereabouts are unknown.
As reports stressed even before Joel’s shattered body was discovered, this was a case of drug dealers, running an operation in Portugal. Prosecutors believe Joel was killed because his murderers feared he was about to return to the UK and report them to police for crimes being committed abroad.
The judges acknowledged that the attack on 29-year-old Joel was “so violent” that he had been reduced to “an amalgam of broken, crushed and burnt flesh and bones”.
But that’s where they stopped – to the mystification and utter dismay of Joel’s family.
“Joel’s brother Samuel, who towards the end of the trial had spoken optimistically of the chances of a conviction by describing it as ‘another big step towards the justice that Joel deserves’, raged after learning the two defendants had been acquitted: ‘The verdict has left us shocked, saddened, confused and angry.
‘We were hoping for justice for Joel and some closure for us as a family and for his friends.
‘The outcome – acquittal due to lack of evidence – has given us neither.
‘We now must wait again before we can decide on the next steps to take.’
Joel’s mother Jacki, who reported Joel’s disappearance to Sussex Police in August 2018 and made a video appeal with husband Alan the following March around the time of what would have been her son’s 30th birthday, added: ‘We are all struggling with this. In view of the evidence we are aware of, it makes us wonder.’
Joel’s last contact with his family was in mid-July 2018 after he wished his brother a happy birthday on Facebook. He had travelled to Portugal in January that year ostensibly to work on a house near Coimbra.
Prosecutors claimed in an indictment released in November 2022 that he was murdered between July 17 and 28 2018 in the living room of Sherwood’s home in the village of Macieira around 60 miles south-west of Pedrogão Grande.
They said in their 20-page indictment: ‘For reasons related to Joel Eldridge’s wish to return to the UK, and fearing he would co-operate with police there and report their drug trafficking activity in Portugal, Jacob Barnard and Joshua Sherwood hatched a plan to kill him.’
They accused Barnard of snorting a line of cocaine after the horrific crime and sending a mobile phone picture of Joel’s body to an unidentified friend.
Although Sherwood, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, was not accused of physically attacking Mr Eldridge, prosecutors alleged in their indictment the pair had ‘mutually agreed’ to kill him.
The trial judges ruled those claims had not been proven after retiring to consider their verdict following the last court session.
They insisted in their 22-page written ruling, released in full for the first time late last week, that they couldn’t ‘draw conclusions’ from Barnard’s decision to refuse to testify in open court, says the Mail.
And they said a statement Sherwood had given UK police had no evidential value in a Portuguese court because he hadn’t turned up for his trial and therefore couldn’t be cross-examined.
There was no indication in the judges’ verdict that Joshua Sherwood could face any criminal charges in Portugal over his failure to answer his court summons.
The three judges also insisted that none of the witnesses, who included Joel’s mother, his Portuguese landlady and Portuguese police, offered evidence enabling them to convict the defendants. ND
Source material: Daily Mail
