Portugal's top court cuts 'Algarve serial killer' sentence from 22 to 16 years

A second reduction

Portugal's Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) has cut the prison term of José Mascarenhas, known as 'Kenny' and described in Portuguese media as the 'serial killer of the Algarve', from 22 to 16 years. The court's note, published on Thursday, 5 November, concerns the killing of a 25-year-old Brazilian woman whose partly charred body was found in a ravine beside the IC1 road in Ourique, in the Beja district of the Alentejo.

The sentence has now been lowered for the second time. The Faro court, sitting with a jury, had convicted him of qualified homicide, desecration of a corpse, theft, attempted card abuse and computer forgery, and imposed the maximum cumulative term of 25 years. The Évora Court of Appeal then reduced it to 22 years, and the Supreme Court has now lowered it again.

Why the charge was changed

The Supreme Court found that the proven facts do not show the special reprehensibility or perversity that qualified homicide requires. It therefore reclassified the crime as simple homicide, which carries a lower sentencing range. The new term is 14 years for the homicide and 2 years for the other offences, according to the court's note.

The court said the proven facts contain nothing on when, how or in what manner the killing was carried out. It added that the victim's prior acquaintance with the defendant, her youth and foreign nationality, her work in prostitution, his physical superiority and the night-time location on an isolated site were not enough to establish the required reprehensibility.

The killing and the case

The woman had been working at an apartment in Vilamoura, in the Loulé municipality, when she disappeared on 6 December 2022. Her body was found on 9 January 2023, more than a month later, partly burned in a ravine beside the IC1 in Ourique. Reports say the crime took place in a car belonging to the defendant's girlfriend, which was later found abandoned with black gloves, duct tape and the victim's mobile phone inside.

The Faro court found that the defendant beat and restrained her because he wanted to rob her, believing she had high earnings. After the killing he could not withdraw money with her bank card, but he persuaded an employee at a bar where he went afterwards to help him, according to the same reports.

Other proceedings

Reports link him to the deaths of three women, and the reduction came shortly before he is due to stand trial for the killing of a third. At the reading of the judgment in Faro, the presiding judge noted that he has criminal records for offences of a different nature. The sentence has not yet been finally settled for the murder that is still to be tried.

Faro first instance25

Évora Court of Appeal22

Supreme Court (STJ)16

Faro first instance

25 years

Évora Court of Appeal

22 years

Supreme Court (STJ)

16 years

Data from the article text