2.10 The Story of Alcochete: Mummy's boy

To recap our last post we discovered that Válter Semedo wasn't just a defendant in the Alcochete attacks trial, but also in the trial involving the death of the Italian Marco Ficini along with Miguel Ferrão, Ricardo Neves. So maybe he doesn't get crossed off as just being the admin after all. Then we heard the prosecutor Cândida Vilar’s words about Tiago Silva. She calls him the ‘Operational Commander.’ So then I'm back to thinking well maybe it was planned to a degree then…a voice then whispers in my ear ‘Yeah but it's Cândida…’ and the voice in my head whispers ‘oh yeah good point,’ and another voice whispers ‘why are you whispering and who are you talking to there's no one there?’ and it was at that point I realised this entire thing had broken me.

I figured what we really needed to do is go through everything we could find about the defendants that hadn't been the big name draws, we were going to do what Cândida Vilar had almost wilfully chosen to do which was to pick from the low hanging fruit. If the testimony that follows is from the low hanging fruit then I guess that makes those who follow in part 11, the rotten apples. So on with the post…

In the 34th session we heard from two of the defendants on trial. As always a note that the testimony shown may not be entirely accurate because Google translate is good aa Cândida Vilar is at prosecuting. Any words changed are done to make a sentence read how I think it was meant and not in the garbled nonsense that was spat back out. Any changes are not meant in a defamatory manner, neither were they ever made to try and deliberately mislead you the reader.

Pedro Lara

Prior to the testimony of Lara the court heard character witnesses from his mother Maria Isabel, and his girlfriend, Daniela.

The words of his mother: “He was always very responsible. He was always the one who helped me and was my support system. He was good at what he did, he had a sense of justice, of goodness, he helped people even in an extraordinary way. Conflicts? No, on the contrary, when there weren't any, he was the one to separate them. He studied as long as he wanted, but even without needing to, he was already working. Now that he’s come to his senses, he’s very down, with enormous regret, not only for the harm he caused to those families but also to his own family.” 

She confirmed the car used was hers as his was in the garage. Some things that were there, like a baseball bat, ball, and other sports equipment, belonged to him, given to him by friends.

Note - Well at least he had a baseball to go with the bat. I remember an officer from Derbyshire telling me he'd found a bat in the car of a taxi driver who claimed to be part of the Derby Baseball League when questioned. Funny what sticks in your head even a decade later and no he didn't have a ball to go with it.

“From what I know, he was going to criticise the players but also encourage them for the World Cup, and then things went downhill.”

Note - I'm guessing either his mother is not a big football fan or the reporter didn't know what the Taça de Portugal was. 

The girlfriend: “We’ve been dating for two years, but we had dated before; we’ve known each other for 20 years. He was in Brazil, and then we reconnected. He’s a genuine, honest, friendly, loyal, non-confrontational, and helpful person. He’s very sorry for everything he did, not only to his family but to all families. He’s not doing well with the situation. In a way, his outlook on life has changed; he’s much more down now… What has changed in our lives? A lot has been put on hold: vacations, trips, getting married someday, having children. All of that has stopped.”

Pedro Lara, the defendant: “I’d like to explain the whole situation that involved me, but only talk about myself. They called me to go to the Academy. I was at work, I passed by the Alvalade stadium, I stopped at Lidl…,”

Judge Pires asked him to detail the steps. 

PL: “I was at work, they sent a message asking if I wanted to go, I couldn’t see all the WhatsApp messages. It was the day before, I think it was a day before. It was to tease the players for not qualifying for the Champions League but also to encourage them for the following weekend, to win the Taça de Portugal final. I went to Alvalade to give other people a ride. Did I know them? I knew them.” 

Once more he chooses that conceal who was with him. 

“I only found out we were going to Lidl. I had been to the Academy before, I went there to watch youth and B team games. And another time, when [José] Peseiro was the coach. Sporting had to win that game, I think it was against Benfica. We went as a group. The gate was closed, they spoke to a gentleman there and we went in, in an orderly fashion. It was just one supporters' group, Juve Leo. At Lidl I noticed there were more cars but I couldn't tell how many. The goal was that when we got there the training would be happening, that's what I understood from the messages.”

JP: "Were they already running?"

PL: "Yes."

JP: "Were you running too?"

PL: "Yes."

JP: "Why?"

PL: "Because I was following behind…"

JP: "And didn't you find it strange that they were covering their faces?"

PL: "Everyone has their reasons…"

JP: "Usually people on the street don't walk around with their faces covered…"

PL: "Since there were journalists there, some people didn't want to be seen."

JP: "Did you cover your face too?"

PL: "Yes."

JP: "With what?"

PL: "With a scarf that was in the car."

JP: "But the car belonged to your mother, was the scarf there?"

PL: "No, I took it with me to cover my face. I didn't want to be on TV…"

“Everything was open, I followed the people who were in front. We went forward, we went right, then left, I followed the group that was further ahead. There was nobody on the fields, I don't remember if Jorge Jesus was there… There were only three people, I expected them to be training. Then I turned left where there was a glass door. I don't know why I went in there, I followed those who were in front. Possibly there were players there. When I went in, I turned left and there was that gentleman who was a Sporting player, Manuel Fernandes, yelling, and I stood there listening."

JP: "Did you see flares being set off? Smoke?"

PL: "Yes."

JP: "Inside?"

PL: "In the corridor, as far as I noticed, I didn't see any."

JP: "And the fire alarm, did you hear it?"

PL: "I don't remember…"

JP: "When you're there, Do you have the perception that those people were entering?"

PL: "There were some who were going, others who were going back and forth, others leaving…"

JP: "Did you see if Jorge Jesus was going after anyone?"

PL: "He was yelling at someone, I didn't understand who or if he was going after him or not."

Fátima Almeida then began asking questions, starting with the WhatsApp messages and what he had said in the “Academia Amanhã” group.

FA:" Did you also write in that group?"

PL: "I wrote two or three times, I was working…"

FA:" You said ‘I’m going too’, ‘I have room in the car’, you said ‘We have to go to Casinha to pick someone up’… When you say you’re going, you have to understand you’re not a child, you offer rides to others…"

PL: "In my mind, nobody would go there to do what happened, I would never go there if I knew what was going to happen…"

FA:" The other time you went to the Academy, did you go with your faces covered?"

PL: "No."

FA:" You didn’t think about that?"

PL: "Not at the time…"

“When I was leaving for the dirt parking lot, I could see the GNR car pass by me, I saw it out of the corner of my eye. As they went to the left, I turned to the right,”

Note - Seems a tad ironic that a squad car apparently drove past a large congregation of cars and presumably the officers didn't think anything of it…

FA:" You mentioned Manuel Fernandes… What did he say?"

PL: "That this wasn't Sporting…"

FA:" You were there for two minutes, what were you doing during that time?"

PL: "I was there, with all the confusion, I was paralysed…"

FA:" And when did you leave?"

PL: "When someone told me to leave…"

FA:" Mr. Rollin [Duarte, assistant technical secretary of Sporting's professional team] passed by you…"

PL: "Who? I don't remember…"

FA:" I'm telling you… Who else did you see?"

PL: "There were two other people there that I don't know who they were."

FA:" So you were there for two minutes doing nothing?"

PL: "People were passing by…"

FA:" How old were you at the time?"

PL: "I was 35 years old."

FA:" When you went there during Peseiro's time, what was the reason?"

PL: "Sporting needed to win…"

FA:" And did you win?"

PL: "I don't think so…"

“Besides the scarf, I was also carrying a cap and sunglasses. I saw the flares from outside, before entering that lobby door; inside I only saw smoke. When I saw the flares, I started to find it strange, yes. Thinking about it now… I really didn't think about it; if I had, I wouldn't have gone… I can't explain it, I've thought a lot about what happened and I can't understand it. I was a Sporting member, I stopped paying my dues two years ago,” he continued.

FA:" And what about Juve Leo?"

PL: "I know the people, but I wasn't a member."

FA:" Do you go to games with the supporters?"

PL: "I did…"

FA:" But did you see them there?"

PL: "It wasn't exactly there, it was higher up."

FA:" Do you know the casuals?"

PL: "I know them… (laughs)"

FA:" They're a kind of Loch Ness monster… So, what is a casual?"

PL: "A casual isn't part of any supporters' group…"

FA:" But you can also be part of a supporters' group…"

PL: "Maybe not… Usually it's a separate group, they dress in dark clothes, travel alone, walk alone, they don't have club merchandise…"

FA:" But you're describing a normal fan…"

PL: "Yeah, I don't know…"

FA:" Okay, so you were just a member of Juve Leo…"

PL: "No, of Sporting."

“This stopped my life. The things I had to do, it’s all completely been put aside… I don’t care so much about Sporting anymore, I stopped following them. I might go see the games when all this is over, I know it’s not bad to be a Sporting fan but it affected my life a lot… I can’t explain it… Thinking about it coldly afterwards, nobody in their right mind would have even gone, but at that moment… A person doesn’t think…”

Cândida Vilar then, wanted to talk a little more about the WhatsApp messages, in a dialogue that Sílvia Pires, the presiding judge of the panel, then interrupted.

JP: "What were the rockets you're talking about here?"

PL: "I knew someone who repaired flares and rockets, but I messaged that same person later saying I wasn't going to bring anything."

JP: "And the flares were an incentive?"

PL: "It's like in stadiums, flares and smoke are a form of incentive…"

JP: "But when they're thrown onto the field…? And then there are fines…"

PL: "That's not the case. For some reason it's prohibited, but in other countries it isn't, in Germany for example?"

JP: "How did you imagine these rockets?"

PL: "I didn't bring anything. The other time with Peseiro, smoke and flares were lit."

“I also covered my face because of my mother's work, so I wouldn't be caught. Sometimes I went out for her business, I knew some people who worked with her, and by chance, many years ago, some images of me even surfaced.”

“Just the fact that we went there and the damage we caused to Sporting, to the players and their families… Being arrested…”

Note - I'll hold my hands up whilst the baseball bat in the car raised an eyebrow, given we started with character witnesses from his mother and his girlfriend I had somewhat naively assumed he must have been about the age of 18 or 19 during the attacks, not nearly double the age. Or maybe it was just me? I know the girlfriend said they'd known each other twenty years but I'd not taken that to mean a complete time in the romantic sense.

I'd have liked to know where his eyes went when he laughed about knowing the casuals. Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Shakespeare? Possibly. Anyways all told the other telling mark was when the judge states he was there for two minutes. I knew it was over pretty quickly but I'm hoping for his poor girlfriends sake he stays longer than two minutes for other things. 35 years old … Please at least one of you who read that tell me I'm not the only person who was surprised by that.

António Catarino

Catarino was the warm up act for Nuno Mendes. No pressure son. Mind you when you've got one of the alleged moral authors of the attacks following on you'd be fortunate if anyone was really paying attention to what you have to say.

AC: “On May 15th, I was at university, I didn't know anything, I had class, I was having lunch, they asked me if I wanted to go to the Academy. I assumed it was to go to express our discontent, to talk to the players. Now in this moment, I know I was wrong at the time… I thought I had some right. My displeasure was at the team's poor performance, having failed to qualify for the Champions League. I went by car with other people who gave me a ride. How can I say it? Someone called me, said they were going, then I talked to other people who were also going. We stopped at Lidl, I didn't get out of the car, I had no idea of the who the other people were. I noticed there were three or four cars but I had no idea. We parked in the dirt parking lot. I got out of the car, some people put on balaclavas. Someone passed me, asked if I wanted one because I didn't have one and they had an extra one.

“I started running too because I thought the training was going to end. I had never been to the Academy before. Your Honor, I didn't know if authorisation was needed or not, I knew they had been there before. I thought it was organised by the fan group's leadership, but I don't have much knowledge.”

JP: "That's already clear, if you had much knowledge you wouldn't get involved in this…"

AC: "Well…"

JP: "Did someone go ahead, did someone organise it?"

AC: "I saw people, several people from Juve Leo. Some I recognised by sight. I saw Fernando Mendes. I thought it was organised…"

JP: "And they were covering their faces?"

AC: "I thought it was so we could demonstrate, I didn't know it was a tool to commit a crime…"

JP: "Then what was it?"

AC: "It had Sporting symbols, I'd seen them in the stands at games…"

JP: "But it wasn't on a football field…"

AC: "Yes, but I always saw it as an accessory, Your Honor…"

JP: “I don’t know the Academy, I went looking for them, I lost track of where the people who came with me were. I went looking, I saw some flares, I saw one under the car which I thought was unintentional because I saw someone taking the flare from under the car. The intention was to go talk to the players, when I saw the group entering the building I thought they were going to ask to speak to someone. As if we had that right… I enter the building, turn left, when I get to a part that has a kind of an 'S', I found that very strange and thought: ‘I didn’t come here for this’."

JP: "Did you go into the dressing room?"

AC: "No, no, Your Honor… I stayed there at that 'S' thinking that wasn’t normal. I saw Bas Dost leaning against the wall, clutching his head, right after the first door. I stayed there, seeing if I could see the people I had gone with. I didn’t see them anywhere. Then I heard screams, saw smoke, I started to panic…"

JP: "But you went through the door, you know that…"

AC: "And I kept looking for the people. Honestly I was in shock. It all happened so fast. I saw people leaving, saying, ‘Wow, this has already gone downhill’… It’s already turned into a mess, let’s say… But I couldn’t leave, I had hitched a ride…"

JP: "But what did you think it was?"

AC: "For Bas Dost to be in that state, he must have been assaulted…"

JP: "But it was a consequence of the group that entered…"

AC: "Of course, that’s right, obviously…"

JP: “People were leaving, it was total chaos… To be honest, my head didn’t even hear the alarm go off, I didn’t find the people and I ran away, to the foot of the car. I saw Mr. Jorge Jesus enter, when I was leaving he was leaving too, shouting. I didn’t realise he was going after someone. I just wanted to understand what was happening and leave. I’m even a smoker and I even felt bad about that and the balaclava. Now that I see it, I remember Mr. Manuel Fernandes saying that this wasn’t Sporting…"

JP: "Did you go to Madeira?"

AC: "No."

JP: "And were you in the garages after the game against Marítimo?"

AC: "No."

JP: "But I see here that you searched for balaclavas on your phone…"

AC: "Until that moment I considered it an item to support the team, an accessory, and I was thinking about the Taça de Portugal final. I didn’t even know I was going to the Academy until then…"

“When I saw someone pulling a flare from under the car, I thought there were people there who were going to calm things down. On other trips to the Academy, I knew they had lit a flare or two… Was there a preferred target? No, it was the team as a whole, one player can't be blamed alone.”

JP: "Are you a Sporting member?"

AC: "Yes ma'am, but I'm suspended now…"

JP: "And a Juve Leo member?"

AC: "For a year."

“I wanted to express my deepest regret for thinking I had the right to go there and demand explanations from anyone. The biggest victims were the players. What happened on May 15th cannot represent Portuguese football and organised fan groups. I wanted to apologise to the players, the coaching staff, Sporting, Sporting members, and society because we set the worst example of conduct. I spent 14 months in prison, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I went through difficult times, my grandfather passed away and I couldn't be there. My family is very Catholic, we care a lot about Christmas, my mother spent Christmas at the prison gates to feel closer to me, the players are human beings, they went through that and I want to offer my sincerest apologies…”

The reporter noted that Catarino returned to the second block of the Monsanto Court, sitting opposite the other defendants and drunk almost half a bottle of water in one gulp. Are we sure it was water and not vodka?

I'm never really sure why some people think you fell off the last boat. Why were you googling Balaclavas? Oh as a fashion accessory for the final. I'm sorry…for the final at the end of May… in Portugal…land of fucking roasting hot weather. Sure, sure I buy that. Should have added that to his punishment to have to wear it for four or five hours outside in Portuguese summer time. Make it a black one as well to attract the heat given apparently that's the casuals colour of choice. Perhaps Lacoste, Fila, Burberry and the likes never made it to Portugal?

Not all defendants chose to give a statement to the court. We'll maybe assume that with these two that they fit in the camp of hangers on rather than genuine hooligans. Any idiot can have all the gear and no idea and call themselves a casual based on what they wear. 

This is starting to have the feel of when you had to do cross country running at school. Now I've no idea what the majority of the defendants look like but what I can testify to is that some of them really are fat bastards. I know this because there's photos of them being transported by officers outside of the courts with their T shirts over their heads to protect their identity and everything else is quite literally hanging out from the neck to the waistline. So maybe we should picture it as two groups. Those at least relatively fit who jog from the dirt car park, through the security gates, down through the players car park and into the academy complex, then a secondary group of stragglers who've probably only run for public transport since they left school. If the original plan was to catch the players training then they failed miserably although it must be said I wouldn't like to swear whether they were still to train or whether they had trained. Though presumably if it was the latter there would have been a few half naked players about the dressing room. All told neither is it a planned attack, nor is it a very well thought out plan of any kind. Had it involved catching a train you don't suppose anyone would have made the connection. 

So that's the low hanging fruit and to be fair they come across as a couple of halfwits. I don't think it's unfair to suggest the pair are invited to boost the numbers in case the vast majority don't turn up. Given one was paralysed by fear you can hardly surmise that he was invited for a reputation of being one of the top casuals in the Sporting ranks now can you? Fuck knows what the other one was studying at university. I imagine it can't have been intellectually challenging. When you realise it's all going to shit surely you're first thought is fuck I need to peg it and get out of here before I get nicked. Even if I'm miles away from home I'm not looking to find the bloke who gave me the balaclava and give it back to him and then find the one who gave me a lift. But here we do see the predisposition found with football fans on the continent. That they think they have a right to go protest at a training ground. Go back to series one with the part on the introduction to the ultras and the surprise on Fabrizio’s face when he learns in England that fans can't just turn up to training. Forget whatever ended up happening, just because you pay €15 to go watch the Dérbi de Lisboa or you travel a couple of hundred kilometres to an away game, it doesn't give you the right to even just to to the training ground. It's just fucking bizarre. It's truly egotistical bollocks. Note the total number of defendants in the case who are women by the way. Oh yes that would be NONE.

Anyways I think we can safely say a large proportion of those who attended weren't invited for their Kung Fu skills. Or maybe they were invited because they have beautiful singing voices although neither of them mentioned it during their testimony so take it as read that I'm taking the piss.

But what do we really learn here? That critically for one group of those who went it was definitively sold to them how they told it. Why? Because there's no pre-planned exit strategy. If you were genuinely planning to carry out an attack you'd plan how to get away in advance. Catarino - he's going now the fuck am I going to get home. His exit strategy was to rendezvous half an hour later and get a lift back. Not a planned attack… Well at least for certain parts of the group.

The question is with just two parts remaining of the story within the story, within the story, which might not actually have been a story at all…of all the defendants we've not heard a single thing about, is there anyone amongst them that would make you do a double take and make you change your minds again? This next post is for the true crimes podcast fans…if anyone was ever daft enough to make it into a podcast series. I'm open to offers. We'll see you for the penultimate part next time.