The Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges seeking a security measure for a dangerous offender deemed not criminally responsible in the case of a 32-year-old man accused of killing his mother in March this year. The alleged crime took place at the home they shared in Água de Pena, in the municipality of Machico. According to a statement on the Madeira Public Prosecutor’s Office website, the charges were submitted by the Santa Cruz Public Prosecutor’s Office on the 4th of July. Investigators say the defendant repeatedly struck his mother on the head and face with a 12-kilogram iron dumbbell, causing the fatal injuries. The Public Prosecutor’s Office says he suffers from a serious mental disorder and that his cognitive abilities and critical judgement were severely affected at the time, a condition made worse by psychoactive substances. It also states that he was unable to understand the unlawfulness of his actions and that, when officers from the Public Security Police (PSP) tried to arrest him, he jumped from a height of more than six metres. He remains in pre-trial detention in a psychiatric prison unit, and the Public Prosecutor’s Office is asking the court to order compulsory psychiatric treatment if he is found not criminally responsible and still dangerous. The investigation was led by the Santa Cruz branch of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Madeira, with the Judiciary Police assisted by the PSP and the National Republican Guard (GNR).
