A food delivery cyclist asked for forgiveness from the family of teenager Josh Dunne as he was cleared of murder and said: “I’m sorry.”
But after George Gonzaga Bento was acquitted, Josh’s mum insisted she will “keep fighting” for her boy until “the day I die”.
Following over 500 days in custody, the Brazilian walked out of the Criminal Courts Justice, a free man. In a six-week trial, Mr Bento admitted he stabbed Josh, who was 16, in the chest twice.
But he insisted he was acting in self-defence after being attacked when he and a colleague tried to retrieve a stolen bike in East Wall, Dublin on January 26, 2021.
Leaving the court building after being acquitted, the 36-year-old embraced his partner, mother and legal team as he grasped a Bible and the book Mind Full, by comedian Dermot Whelan.
Mr Bento said: “I am very grateful. I pray a lot for that. I’m not in shock. It’s more emotion than I can speak.”
Hailing his “brilliant” legal team who believed him and fought for him, he added: “Now my focus is my family, spend some time with the people I love. The people who support me. After that I think about other things.”
Asked if had anything to say to the Dunne family, he said: “I say sorry at the beginning and at the end. Hopefully one day she [Josh’s mum] could forgive me for what happened.” Mr Bento added Josh’s death was not his intention.
His partner Cohelo Macedo told of her relief following the case. She told The Mirror: “It’s a really hard moment because we are relieved he was proved he was innocent. But on the other hand we feel really sorry for the other family.
“We cannot deny they are going through a really hard time. It is not easy. I cannot even imagine how painful it is for the other family to lose a child. But I need to say I am really relieved.
“We do not know anything about law, Irish law. We were really worried. We were preparing ourselves for the worst because you never know. So now we are just really grateful for the jury and this court.”
Less than half an hour before Ms Macedo spoke, a jury returned to Court 22 to return their verdicts on the charges of murder, producing a knife in a manner to intimidate others and two counts of assault causing harm.
After “not guilty” was read out for each charge, Mr Bento held his head in his hands as relief washed over him.
After Mr Justice Paul Burns ordered he should be freed, he beamed and hugged his partner and mother who had travelled from Brazil and another relative in the room.
The devastated family of Josh, a popular and talented young footballer from Ballymun in north Dublin, were too shocked to speak following the case yesterday.
His heartbroken mum Diane was supported by her loyal family and friends as she left the courthouse yesterday. On social media, she thanked people for their support and said: “I am not going down easy. I’ll keep fighting for Josh until the day I die.”
The jury of seven women and five men took a little over eight hours to reach unanimous verdicts on all counts. Prosecutors claimed Mr Bento produced a knife during a “stand-off or confrontation” with a man on a moped who had stolen a bike which belonged to his pal and fellow delivery cyclist Guilherme Quieroz.
Other youths and Josh arrived and got involved in the confrontation.
During a Garda interview, Mr Bento said he used a knife to defend himself from the man on the moped and the gang of youths. He insisted it was only his intention to intimidate them and make them go away when he took out the weapon.
Mr Bento said he stabbed the first and second males who punched and attacked him as he was scared and wanted to protect himself.
Josh, who was unarmed and had never come to the attention of the gardai, was not involved in the initial confrontation with the two delivery men. The teenager just held the moped while the attack continued. When he saw Mr Bento stab his friend, Josh reacted by punching him repeatedly before being stabbed.
CCTV captured the moment he separated from the group and stumbled to the ground. Assistant State Pathologist Dr Heidi
Okkers told the court how Josh suffered two stab wounds to the chest.
The cause of death was a wound to the middle of the chest that pierced the muscle between the ribs and entered the chest cavity, piercing the lung close to the heart. It had also penetrated the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body.
Mr Bento took the stand during the trial and said he and Mr Quieroz had followed a thief through Dublin but when they tried to retrieve the stolen bike, they were set on by a gang of men and youths. He claimed he feared for his life and that of his friend and he used the knife to defend them from serious injury or death.
Mr Bento told the jury he believed the level of force he used was necessary to keep him and Quieroz alive. He said: “I believe I saved two lives, mine and Guilherme’s lives.”
Defence counsel Padraig Dwyer told the jury his client is an innocent, hard-working man.
He claimed Bento used reasonable force to defend himself and Mr Quieroz from a “punishment beating” because they tried to retrieve a stolen bicycle. But prosecutor Sean Guerin said when he produced the knife a second time and used it to stab one of the alleged victims, the teenagers were backing away and neither he nor his friend were under attack.
He said Josh, who had no involvement in the assault up to then, reacted to seeing his friend being stabbed by using reasonable force in punching Mr Bento to push him away.
Counsel described Josh’s actions as “commendable” but said the accused reacted to the teenager’s reasonable
response with lethal force that he knew was not necessary to protect himself or his friend.
Mr Bento, whose address was given as East Wall in Dublin 3, had denied murdering Josh at East Wall Road.
He was also cleared of producing a utility knife in a manner likely to intimidate another in the course of a dispute or fight. The jury also returned not guilty verdicts on the charge of assault causing harm to two
other young men on the same occasion. After the verdicts were returned, Mr Justice Burns thanked the jury and exempted them from service for seven years.
