A food delivery cyclist said: “I’m sorry” and asked for forgiveness from the family of Josh Dunne yesterday as he was cleared of murdering the teenager.
But Josh’s mum Diane insisted that she will “keep fighting” for her boy until “the day I die” following the verdict.
Following over 500 days in custody, Brazilian George Gonzaga Bento walked out the side entrance of the Criminal Courts of Justice a free man after a jury delivered a verdict of not guilty.
Read more: Delivery cyclist found not guilty of murder of Ballymun teenager Josh Dunne
In a six week trial, Bento, 36, admitted he stabbed Ballymun teen Josh, 16, in the chest twice - but claimed 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 outside the courts as he grasped a bible and the book “Mind Full”, penned by comedian and broadcaster Dermot Whelan.
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.”
He hailed his legal team as “brilliant”, saying that they believed him and fought for him before adding: “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.”
He added that what happened was not his intention.
His partner Cohelo Macedo told of her relief following the case.
She said: “It’s a really hard moment because we are relieved that he was proved he was innocent, but on the other hand we feel really sorry for the other family.
“We cannot deny that 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 beforehand, a jury had returned to Court 22 in the CCJ building to return their verdicts on the charges of murder, producing a knife in a manner to intimidate others and two assault causing harm raps.
After “not guilty” was read out for each count, Bento held his head in his hands as relief washed over him.
After the judge, Mr Justice Paul Burns, directed he should be freed, Bento beamed as he hugged his partner, his mother who had travelled from Brazil and a male relative in the room.
The devastated family of Josh, a talented young footballer who was popular in his native Ballymun, left the court and were too shocked to speak following the case yesterday.
Josh’s heartbroken mum Diane was supported by her loyal family and friends as she left the courthouse yesterday.
And on social media, Diane 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 following a six-week trial.
The prosecution claimed that Bento produced a knife during a “stand-off or confrontation” with a man on a moped who had stolen another delivery cyclist’s bike, which belonged to his pal Guillherme Quieroz.
Other youths and Josh arrived at the scene and got involved in the confrontation.
Bento told gardai in his interviews that he had used a knife to defend himself from the man on the moped and the gang of youths.
He insisted that it was only his intention to intimidate them when he took out the knife and make them go away.
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 Bento or Quieroz.
The young lad just held the moped while the attack continued.
When he saw Bento stab his friend, Josh reacted by punching him repeatedly before being stabbed.
CCTV captured the moment that Josh 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.
Bento took the stand during the trial and said he and his pal 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.
Bento claimed he feared for his life and that of his friend and that he used the knife to defend them from serious injury or death.
He told the jury that 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.”
Bento’s defence counsel, Padraig Dwyer SC, told the jury that his client was an innocent, hard-working man.
Mr Dwyer claimed Bento used reasonable force to defend himself and his friend Quieroz from a “punishment beating” inflicted on them because they tried to retrieve a stolen bicycle.
But prosecution counsel, Sean Guerin SC, said that when Bento 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 that Josh, who had no involvement in the assault up to then, reacted to seeing his friend being stabbed by using reasonable force in punching Bento to push him away.
Counsel described Josh’s actions as “commendable” but said Bento reacted to Josh’s reasonable response with lethal force that he knew was not necessary to protect himself or his friend.
Bento, with an address in East Wall in Dublin 3, was also cleared of producing a utility knife in a manner likely to intimidate another in the course of a dispute or fight.
He was further acquitted of assault causing harm to two other young men on the same occasion.
Following the verdicts, Mr Justice Paul Burns thanked the jury and exempted them from further service for seven years.
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