Brazilian jailed for killing Briton
A Brazilian man who killed and dismembered British teenager Cara Burke has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho Santos had calmly told the court in Goiania how he stabbed Cara, 17, to death and dismembered her last year after they argued about his heavy drug use and his refusal to give her money.
Santos said he had been smoking crack cocaine for four days when Cara, from Southfields, south-west London, threatened to tell his mother he was spending all his money on drugs unless he gave her an unspecified amount of cash.
Santos, 20, told the court Cara threatened to have her police officer boyfriend confiscate his drugs and sell them so she could get the money she wanted. As she went into the living room to telephone the officer, Santos said he cranked up the volume on his stereo.
He said he put one hand over her mouth and started stabbing her with a knife that he had been using to cut up cocaine. She grabbed at the knife and he bit her arm so she would let go.
"I don't remember where I stabbed," Santos said. "I kept on stabbing away, not knowing where, and when I saw what I had done, she was dead."
Santos said he then took a bath and went to an all-night party. On the way home, he stopped at a supermarket and bought a larger knife so he could cut up Cara's body.
He told the court he put her body in a bathtub and dismembered her body, putting parts in two suitcases. He disposed of the remains near two rivers in Goiania, a central Brazilian city.
The prosecution had asked for the maximum 30-year prison sentence for Santos.
Defence lawyer Carlos Trajano called the sentence "more or less fair", but left open the possibility of appeal.
