A Brazilian man who was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend in a flat in Cork has been jailed for life, and apologised to her family for taking her life.
32-year-old Miller Pacheco, of Formiga in Minas Gerais in Brazil accepted the verdict of the court of the Central Criminal Court in Cork today, after he was jailed for the murder of Bruna Fonseca.
At the conclusion of the hearing his senior counsel, Ray Boland, said that Pacheco would not be lodging an appeal in the case.
He said that his client wanted to express his remorse for the "devastation" caused to the Fonseca family.
Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford said that 28-year-old Ms Fonseca was as an "exceptional young woman" and a "complete human being".
She said that Pacheco had failed to give Ms Fonseca her right to move on when their relationship ended in November 2022.
Ms Fonseca was in a relationship with Pacheco for five years in their native Brazil. She moved to Ireland in September 2022 with her young niece.
Pacheco arrived in this country in November 2022. However, the pair broke up within days of his landing in Cork.
Ms Justice Lankford noted that Ms Fonseca had recorded a conversation with Miller in which she told him that she was not a "trophy".
She said that Ms Fonseca could not be "won or lost" as she had her "own hopes and dreams".
Yesterday, the jury took just one hour and two minutes to find the accused guilty of the murder on New Year's Day 2023 at his flat in Liberty Street in Cork.
Ms Fonseca's older sisters Izabel and Fernanda, her cousin Marcela and niece Maria all wore t-shirts bearing the image of their "unforgettable" loved one at the sentencing hearing.
Izabel, in her victim impact statement, said that at 4.45am on 1 January 2023 her family in Brazil received the most difficult phone call of their lives.
"While we were celebrating the beginning of a new year we were left floored, speechless and joyless. We were told our baby sister was gone," she said.
"Then came the hardest task, telling our mother that her daughter would never return home. Then waiting for the remains, the wake and the burial. In the early hours of 16 January, Bruna arrived. She looked serene.
"When our mother tried to touch her, she felt a coldness that should never be a part of that farewell. That scene marked our family permanently.
"We fixed her hair and did her make up with all our love, so that she would be as she always was."
Izabel said that the investigation made it clear that Ms Fonseca was not to blame for what had occurred, with the jury rejecting the position of the accused that he had put his ex-girlfriend in a choke hold to stop her from hitting him.
She stressed that Ms Fonseca was not a number but a wonderful person with dreams, plans, laughter and a whole life ahead of her.
"She came to his country moved by the hope of building a better future. Bruna was strong. Even living a relationship (with Pacheco) characterised by constant manipulation, she always tried to solve problems that were not her own," she said.
"Among all the things taken from her was the chance to meet her youngest niece and to see her grow."
A man decides to take somone's life. And the question that remains is how little is your life worth. A life that was taken because a woman was not allowed to move on, to choose, to love, to live her own life.
Izabel said that whilst Ms Fonseca was not there to defend herself, her family always would be.
"Her name will be remembered with dignity, truth and love. Nothing will bring Bruna back. But it is fair to recognise the seriousness of what was done and clearly state that her life mattered," she said.
Marcela Fonseca, a cousin of the deceased, was living in Cork when the murder occurred. In her victim impact she said that she made a promise to Bruna’s mother that they would her body back for burial.
"And that is what I did. I sent her body back to Brazil. My life was never the same again. I carry the trauma with me," she said.
'Not a statistic'
Marcela said that Bruna was not a statistic.
"I do not see statistics. I see a familiar face. A name. A story. A man decides to take somone’s life. And the question that remains is how little is your life worth. A life that was taken because a woman was not allowed to move on, to choose, to love, to live her own life," she said.
The evidence was that Miller sent Bruna over two thousand messages from when he arrived in Ireland on November 18th 2022 to her death on January 1st, 2023.
Pacheco told gardaí that he did not mean to kill Ms Fonseca. He said that he was not a "monster" and insisted he was "not that person who kills someone I love",
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said that Ms Fonseca died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation. She had suffered over 65 external and internal bruises to her body.
Additional reporting: Paschal Sheehy
