A man who murdered a colleague after stealing €3,000 from the hotel where they both worked is challenging the State’s refusal to transfer him to his native Portugal so he can be close to his ill mother.
Paolo Nascimento was given a life sentence at the Central Criminal Court in 2003 after pleading guilty to the murder of Grainne Dillon, 24, at the Jury’s Inn Hotel, Steamboat Quay, Limerick in January 2002, reports Breaking News.
Nascimento was a night porter at the hotel when he stole €3,000 before using a shotgun to shoot Ms Dillon, who was working as a trainee manager.
An inquest into her death heard she had suffered two shotgun blasts to the right pelvic area and a third to the right breast, reports Breaking News.
Represented by Michael Lynn with Julie Maher, instructed by solicitor James MacGuill, Nascimento submits to the High Court that he is currently on parole and has been living in Ireland since March 2025.
He seeks an order quashing the Parole Board’s decision refusing his transfer of sentence to Portugal, reports Breaking News.
Portugal imposes a fixed sentence of 25 years for murder, as opposed to the mandatory life sentence with potential for parole in Ireland, and the Parole Board has refused to allow the transfer three times since 2006 because the Portuguese system does not allow for post-release monitoring.
TheLiberal.ie won’t quit
Please support us with a small donation on PayPal!
In a letter from last January, the Chief State Solicitor’s Office said the Portuguese authorities have advised that if transferred, Nascimento would serve an adapted 25-year sentence expiring on 5 January 2027, reports Breaking News.
The Minister stated that Nascimento would therefore be a “free man” by January 2027 without any post-release supervision.
The letter states that should Nascimento be transferred, his parole order and its restrictions would be “overturned and rendered null and void,” undermining the work of the Irish Parole Board, reports Breaking News.
Nascimento seeks a declaration that the Minister and the Parole Board are not entitled to refuse transfer without due regard to his rights and individual circumstances.
His legal team submits that the Minister failed to give weight to their client’s status as an EU citizen being “barred from visiting his home country, reuniting with his family and accessing his language and community,” reports Breaking News.
“As a consequence, the applicant has been left in a position where he has not been given any hope of transfer and is facing an indefinite period of being required to reside in Ireland notwithstanding that Portugal is his home, his primary language is Portuguese, and his sole family and personal links are in Portugal,” it is submitted.
It is submitted that Nascimento’s mother, his closest living relative, is too sick and elderly to travel to Ireland, reports Breaking News.
Nascimento also seeks a declaration that the Parole Board unlawfully fettered its discretion by applying a de facto policy requiring persons released on parole to reside within the State for two years, without regard to his particular individual circumstances relating to the care he could provide his mother.
At the High Court on Monday, Judge Mary Rose Gearty granted leave to challenge the refusal and adjourned the matter to November, reports Breaking News.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
