Raped daughter who endured life of torture released from jail for murder of father (Brazil)

Another one of those cases that just leaves you speechless. The father was SEVERINO PEDRO DE ANDRADE.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030540/Mother-12-sensationally-released-jail-murder-husband-judge-learns-father-raping-nine.html

Mother-of-12 sensationally released from jail for murder of husband after judge learns it was father who had been raping her since she was nine
Woman raped by own father during 28-year ordeal
Prosecutors say she suffered 5,000 instances of abuse
Mother-of-12 hired two hitmen to kill her own father

By Chris Parsons

Last updated at 4:51 PM on 26th August 2011

A Brazilian housewife has been sensationally cleared of having her father killed - after it emerged he had raped and beaten her and made her have 12 of his children.

Severina Maria da Silva was abused by her father Severino Pedro de Andrade since the age of nine during a 28-year ordeal in the poverty stricken Brazilian region of Pernambuco.

The 44-year-old woman was jailed for a year after two men stabbed 63-year-old Severino Pedro de Andrade to death in the family home in north-east Brazil in 2005.

Ms Silva said she was forced to live as her father's wife, and was driven to hire hitmen when she realised her abuser wanted to start sexual relations with his an 11-year-old who was both his daughter and granddaughter.

But after six years Ms Silva was freed within four hours of a court hearing yesterday after state prosecutors asked the jury to acquit her.

In a truly horrific case which has shocked Brazil, it emerged in court that Ms Silva gave birth to the first of her father's children at 15.

Jose Edvaldo da Silva, prosecutor for the state of Pernambuco, told the court Ms Silva had been the victim of an estimated 5,000 crimes including rapes as well as physical and psychological assaults over a period of 28 years.

The abuse had begun when Ms Silva was nine, apparently with the consent of her mother who shared the bed with the two of them.

The first child was one of many who died over the years due to genetic problems, lack of medical care and violence from her father.

Only five of the children survived, now aged between 12 and 19, including two with severe disabilities.

At some stage it is thought Ms Silva's mother left the family home.

By 2005 Ms Silva had become worried her 11-year-old daughter would be subjected to the same ordeal as her, so hired two hitmen to kill her father.

The dead man's sister told the court the whole family knew of her suffering but were too afraid to stop him themselves.

Ota Maria da Concei, 86, said: 'He was a very violent. We were afraid he would hit or even kill us. He had already beaten her a lot, from young as a dad and then also as a husband.'

Ms Silva's defence team are now set to sue the Brazilian state, but amazingly all the 44-year-old is now looking for is to be reunited with her mother and to get on with her life.

Ms Silva said: 'God willing, my mother will talk to me again.

'I believed they would find me innocent but you have to be ready for anything so I was afraid. But life will be different from now on.'

Psychologist Wedia Martins, who works for a local women's rights group and had been following the case, told Diario de Pernambuco: 'Nobody is more of a victim in this than Severina herself.

'She already had a history of attempting to run away from home and suicide.

'Her vulnerability only changed when she noticed her dad was getting closer to the daughter and did not want her history to repeat itself.'

The killers, Edon Francisco Amorim and Denisar dos Santos, have been sentenced to 18 and 17 years for murder respectively.