The continuing case involving John Hodgson, the alleged aggressor in a violent incident that left a 23-year-old Portuguese man on a life support system in 2011, has been back in Portimão court.
Ricardo Teixeira suffered a catastrophic head injury and was in a coma for a week in Faro Hospital where later he was allowed to die as the life support machines were switched off as he was brain dead and would not recover, according to his medical team.
Ricardo’s parents have been waiting for justice ever since. Yesterday they were in court to find yet again that Hodgson had failed to turn up.
Hodgson is said to be in the UK and it remains unclear what further action the court has taken to arrange for his presence to answer charges resulting from the incident at a bar in Albufeira’s infamous ‘strip.’
This case has been delayed five times already and at earlier hearings it was stated that Hodgson was meant to be regularly reporting to British police.
The incident was caught on CCTV cameras. A man was filmed assaulting Teixeira in Matt’s Bar in June 2011.
John Hodgson returned to the UK shortly after the assault and his ‘no show’ in Portimão yesterday was the fifth in a process that already has taken years and again highlights the snail’s pace at which the Portuguese justice system moves, even in a trial involving assault and death.
Teixeira’s parents, Helena Baroque and Albino Teixeira said yesterday that it is "very painful to re-live everything that happened."
The images recorded on the CCTV system in Matt’s Bar show Ricardo Teixeira on the stairs of the establishment being hit in the face by an aggressor. It was recorded at 3am.
A GNR officer giving evidence said that the aggressor’s face was not caught on camera due to the angle of the CCTV equipment, so he could not identify the man.
The bar owner gave evidence that he was on the other side of the street when the incident happened and claimed that he recognised the man caught on video and knew him as “John.”
Ricardo Teixeira's parents have applied for compensation due to the profound suffering caused by the death of their son.
The case continues on the 29th of January. Whether John Hodgson will be in court or not, remains to be seen.
Comments
Surely - if there was justification that this Brit was involved - an arrest warrant could be issued? But we must assume that he has proof he was elsewhere, or witnesses to state he was not involved. But that, for reasons only the Portuguese prosecutor knows, these are not being called. So Hodgson fears he will become yet another stitched up Brit. Yet another for Fair Trials International to support.