A six-year investigation into the mafia-style execution of a British expatriate in Portugal has suffered a huge setback following the shock acquittal of the only suspects.
Portuguese prosecutors charged two men with the murder of Joel Eldridge after his remains were discovered in August 2019 following a tip-off from British police. Among them was a drug dealer currently serving a life sentence in a UK prison for killing a mother and her four-year-old son.
A harrowing indictment accused convicted murderer Jacob Barnard, 35, of smashing Joel’s skull into more than 40 pieces with an ax after attacking him with a stun gun, stabbing him and shooting him.
He was charged with murder and desecration of a body along with alleged accomplice Joshua Sherwood, 31, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Prosecutors went to court against the couple alleging that Eldridge, 29 when he disappeared in July 2018, was murdered in a brutal execution which his killers had previously planned because they feared he was about to return to the UK and report them to the police. police for crimes committed. committed abroad.
Three judges have acquitted both men of any wrongdoing after a stop-start trial in the central Portuguese city of Castelo Branco.
The shock decision came despite the sadistic Barnard, who had already been sentenced to eight years in prison in Portugal for drug trafficking and possession of an offensive weapon before his murder conviction in the UK in May 2021, he refused to testify and Sherwood did not attend court despite a subpoena. .
Joel Eldridge, 29, from Bexhill, disappeared in July 2018 in Portugal, six months after moving there to join a construction project.
A harrowing indictment accuses convicted murderer Jacob Barnard, 35, of smashing Joel’s skull into more than 40 pieces with an axe.
Eldridge’s remains were found in a forest near the town of Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal.
Trial judges concluded that Eldridge, who disappeared about six months after moving to Portugal to join a construction project, had died from “multiple traumatic injuries” inflicted on him.
They described the attack on him as “so violent” that he had been reduced to an “amalgamation of broken, crushed and burned flesh and bones” and said his skull was split into 43 pieces when his remains were found hidden in a grave in a bush. near Pedrogao Grande more than a year after his disappearance.
But they ruled that the trial had not proven who was responsible for the savage attack or who had disposed of the victim’s body.
Joel’s brother Samuel, who towards the end of the trial had spoken optimistically of the chances of a conviction, describing it as “another big step towards the justice that Joel deserves”, was enraged to learn that the two defendants had been acquitted: “The verdict has left us shocked, saddened, confused and angry.
‘We hoped for justice for Joel and some closure for us as a family and for his friends.
‘The result – acquittal due to lack of evidence – has given us neither of the two things.
“Now we must wait again before we can decide the next steps to take.”
His mother Jacki, who reported Joel missing to Sussex Police in August 2018 and made a video appeal with her husband Alan the following March, when it would have been his 30th birthday, added: “We are all struggling with this . In view of the evidence we know, it makes us doubt.’
Joel’s last contact with his family was in mid-July 2018 after wishing his brother a happy birthday on Facebook. He had traveled to Portugal in January of that year to work in a house near the university city of Coimbra.
Prosecutors alleged in an indictment released in November 2022 that he was murdered between July 17 and 28, 2018, in the living room of Sherwood’s home in the town of Macieira, about 60 miles southwest of Pedrogao Grande.
They said in their 20-page indictment: “For reasons relating to Joel Eldridge’s desire to return to the UK and fearing that he would co-operate with police there and report on his drug trafficking activity in Portugal, Jacob Barnard and Joshua Sherwood devised a plan to kill him.’
They accused Barnard of snorting a line of cocaine after the horrific crime and sending a photo of Joel’s body on his mobile phone to an unnamed friend.
Although Sherwood, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, was not accused of physically attacking Eldridge, prosecutors alleged in their indictment that the pair had “mutually agreed” to kill him.
Trial judges ruled those claims had not been proven after withdrawing to consider their verdict after the last court session.
They insisted in their 22-page written ruling, published in full for the first time late last week, that they could “draw no conclusions” from Barnard’s decision to refuse to testify in open court.
And they said a statement Sherwood had given to UK police had no evidentiary value in a Portuguese court because he had not appeared at his trial and therefore could not be questioned.
There was no indication in the judges’ verdict that he would face criminal charges in Portugal for failing to respond to their court summons.
The three judges also insisted that none of the witnesses, who included Joel’s mother, his Portuguese landlady and the Portuguese police, offered evidence that would allow them to convict the accused.
Portuguese prosecutors charged two men with the murder of Joel Eldridge after his remains were discovered in August 2019 following a tip-off from British police.
Barnard, from the Welsh coastal town of Aberystwyth, was one of two men jailed for life following the July 10, 2018 murders of Gina Ingles and her son Milo amid an arson attack.
Detective Constable Sandra Roxo told the court that the lead to the whereabouts of Joel’s remains came from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team.
Barnard, from the Welsh coastal town of Aberystwyth, was one of two men jailed for life following the murders of Gina Ingles and her son Milo on July 10, 2018.
They died in a fire in the dead of night after spilled petrol ignited through the front door at their home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Barnard and Andrew Milne, described as his executioner, were found guilty of two counts of murder and one of attempted murder following a trial.
Barnard was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 36 years. Milne, a furniture remover from Hastings, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 34 years.
Police said it had been his way of enforcing a drugs debt believed to be around £400.
Fire investigators found Mrs. Inglesa crouching over her deceased son, with the couple huddled under a window sill in their burned bedroom.
Police said Barnard started the fire that killed Gina and Milo to enforce a drug debt.
Gina’s partner Toby Jarrett, who allegedly owed money for drugs, spent months in hospital after jumping from the home’s first-floor window.
Sherwood was named at Barnard’s murder trial at Brighton Crown Court.
Prosecutors said he received a confession from Barnard that he and Milne were going to a house in Eastbourne to threaten to enforce a drug debt.
But Lewis Power QC told jurors Sherwood was “invigorated by greed and self-interest” in trying to take over Barnard’s drugs operation from Portugal to the UK.