1 week Ago By [email protected] (Gerard Couzens, Monica Charsley)
A Brit plumber will spend up to 16 years in a mental institution after he killed a "genius" graduate that it met at a music festival in Portugal. Joshua Menkens was charged in March with homicide, desecration of a corpse and possession of a prohibited weapon following private school-educated Neil Sutcliffe’s murder towards the end of a four-day bash called the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’. Prosecutors said at the time they accepted the 28-year-old, from the market town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, may never be held criminally responsible for the horror killing.
Overnight it emerged three judges had ruled Menkens should be “locked up” for “between three and 16 years” after concluding he had stabbed his victim. They said it had been proven he knifed Bolton-born artist and freelance web developer Neil more than 20 times towards the end of a four-day bash called the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ at a Brit-owned off-grid commune called Libelinha Venture. They also concluded Menkens covered his victim’s body with branches and leaves in woodland near the festival site close to the central Portuguese town of Pedrogao Grande “with the intention of avoiding its discovery by others”.
But they said he had been suffering a “psychotic episode” at the time brought on by the consumption of drugs and alcohol, lack of sleep and “extreme stress.” In a brief hearing yesterday at a court in Leiria, an hour’s drive south-west of the woodland spot where 35-year-old Neil’s body was found on September 24 last year, the judges categorised Menkens as “dangerous” but said he couldn’t be held criminally responsible for his crimes. They said: “He didn’t kill with criminal intent but as a result of psychosis which is now controlled by medication.
“Security measures need to be applied, which will be in force for a minimum of three years and maximum of 16 years. There will be no suspension of the sentence.” He will be deprived of his freedom until the court considers “the state of danger” that led to his fatal stabbing “ceases.
” Menkens’ girlfriend at the time of the killing is said to have given evidence before the judges’ ruling, understood to have taken place after an initial suspension at the end of last month when the Brit was hauled to court for questioning. It was not immediately clear whether the Brit, who had been held on remand in Santa Cruz do Bispo Prison near Porto in northern Portugal which has a psychiatric and mental health facility, will remain there or be transferred elsewhere. The victim of the gruesome September 23 2023 killing was named for the first time in April, around the same time more details about Menkens’ mental health and the ferocity of his attack emerged in a 19-page prosecution indictment.
The victim’s family spoke soon afterwards to reveal Neil, known to friends as Bingo, had autism and was “very trusting” of others. Portuguese prosecutors alleged in the charge sheet he was stabbed “at least” 20 times with a 10-inch knife. They said Menkens knifed his victim repeatedly in the arms, stomach, neck, chest and face and hid his body in a makeshift grave in a different place before concealing the knife and changing his blood-covered clothes.
They declared in their indictment, charging him with homicide, desecration of a corpse and possession of a prohibited weapon: “By transporting and hiding Neil Sutcliffe’s lifeless body under vegetation, the suspect intended to avoid its discovery by third parties and thus avoid criminal responsibility by deceiving police.” But they added: “The suspect, at the time, was suffering from a mental disorder, namely a psychotic episode/psychosis. His behaviour was independent of his will and determined by psychopathological factors he couldn’t control.
” They went on to confirm they understood middle-class music lover Menkens not be held criminally responsible for his actions even though a trial still had to take place under Portuguese law. Neil’s older brother Mark, a former pupil at £4,540-per-term Bolton School like his sibling who was living in London on a houseboat around the time he was killed, said earlier this year they were getting no information from Portuguese officials which “was not great.” He said soon after the prosecution indictment was made public: “We received a message on social media from someone after Neil was killed asking me if I was his brother and telling me to contact him because he had some bad news.
“They put me in touch with someone else and so on until we got put through to someone at the festival site who had made friends with him that weekend and told us what had happened. “The next minute we’re seeing pictures on social media of Neil’s body being brought out of the woods which was very traumatic. We had to chase the Portuguese police for official information and it’s continued that way.
" He added: "Neil was very trusting of everybody and a genuinely caring person. He took everyone to be his friend, even people he had just met. He had autism and that could have played into him not seeing the dangers others see and getting into a car with a man he’d only just met the night he was killed and not questioning things.
“The skills he had are very unique to people with that neurodiversity and the fact they see the world in a different place. I know Neil spent most of that festival drawing pictures of people he was meeting for the first time and giving them the drawings. "It’s what those who attended and I’ve spoken to have told us.
It was his way of making friends and being nice.” Reports at the time of the fatal stabbing suggested Menkens had been stressed about poor ticket sales for the event at Libelinha Venture, owned by UK public school-educated Xavier Hancock and his Spanish partner Arantxa Atauri. Around 30 British and Portuguese nationals attended the event, which in a promo was described as a “gathering filled with great music and fantastic souls” and promised several DJs as well as circus performers, wellness workshops and a ‘Hatters Secret Quest.
’ The indictment said Neil’s killer told a court-appointed psychiatrist he had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the UK and referenced risk factors that could have contributed to what happened such as the consumption of “psychoactive substances and lack of sleep within a framework of great stress.” Neil’s other older brother John Sutcliffe, one of five siblings, revealed in an emotional online tribute after his death: “We will always love you. You will be so very, very missed by everyone.
You are my baby brother, my gaming buddy, my miniature-painting pal, and my creative genius friend. Even though we didn't see much of each other over the past few years, I will miss you more than you will ever know. The world is a darker and sadder place for you not being a part of it anymore.
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