00:00:06
NARRATOR: A very
English scene, enjoyed by a young Brazilian
couple, but the relationship
00:00:11
of Aliny and Ricardo Godinho was
built on troubled foundations. They decided to actually go
ahead with the move to the UK
00:00:20
by using a fake
marriage certificate. NARRATOR: Aliny wanted
a better life in the UK.
00:00:27
It would be her husband
who got in the way. She said that he
was threatening her,
00:00:32
that he was going to kill
her, and she was scared. NARRATOR: On a school drop
off, Aliny could be seen
00:00:39
holding her daughter's hand. Would that fact be
enough to save her? DUARTE MENDONCO: It
was when Ricardo,
00:00:45
after waiting and stalking
and just being on the lookout for the right time,
got out of his car
00:00:55
with a knife in his
possession and grabbed Aliny from the back. NARRATOR: They had
escaped poverty in Brazil
00:01:02
for the comfort of a
leafy English suburb. But was theirs a marriage
destined for murder?
00:01:08
[music playing] NARRATOR: Growing
up in Brazil, Aliny Mendes' childhood was tough.
00:01:41
Lots of responsibilities. ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese] DUARTE MENDONCO: Aliny was the
oldest of the four siblings
00:02:13
living together in Brazil. And as both of their parents
were often absent, particularly
00:02:19
because of their father's
problems with alcohol, that made Aliny, as the older sister,
step into a role of almost
00:02:27
like a mother. ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: In 2001,
aged 22, Aliny
00:02:45
met local boy Ricardo Godinho
at work in Belo Horizonte. It was the start
of what would be
00:02:51
a tempestuous
17-year relationship. She was working at a
clothing store in Brazil,
00:02:58
and Ricardo was
like a motor boy. Basically, he was picking up
deliveries and distributing
00:03:03
them from that same store. NARRATOR: In March 2003,
the couple began dating. DUARTE MENDONCO: She
was pretty much in love.
00:03:10
It just felt like
it was something in the works that looked
really promising, really.
00:03:15
It's clear that
from the onset, Aliny was really hopeful
about the relationship.
00:03:18
She was one of those really
optimistic individuals. She enjoyed life. And her vision for the future
was a really positive one.
00:03:25
NARRATOR: Things
developed quickly. Young, and apparently in love,
they planned a future life
00:03:29
together, but not in Brazil. They started looking
elsewhere, and the fact that Ricardo found
out that he had access
00:03:37
to having an Italian
passport, that obviously opened doors into Europe. NARRATOR: Specifically,
to London.
00:03:44
Using a fake
marriage certificate. Mr. and Mrs. Godinho settled
in Britain for a better life.
00:03:50
Moving in from
Brazil into the UK, I believe that Aliny and
Ricardo were both looking
00:03:56
for the same things, like
most immigrants look for when they move into a
foreign country,
00:04:00
which is better opportunities. ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: Aliny found work in
a hostel in Central London,
00:04:20
where she befriended
another Brazilian. [speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: By 2007,
the couple seemed set.
00:04:35
DUARTE MENDONCO: Aliny and
Vanessa decided to both start a small business in
London where both of them
00:04:41
would bake Brazilian treats. NARRATOR: Birthday
cakes, a speciality. Aliny was working with
her friend, Vanessa.
00:04:51
EVANESSA PASQUETTO FERRO:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: The Godinhos had
made England their life.
00:05:32
Before long, they were
expecting their first child. LUCIENE MONTERIO:
She was very happy.
00:05:38
And then she got pregnant, and
she was really, really happy. She said that she
born to be a mom.
00:05:45
She was very happy. [speaking portuguese] LUCIENE MONTERIO: As a mother,
I think she was amazing.
00:06:22
And she was always
very, very nice, loving, caring, looking after them. She was doing
everything for fun.
00:06:30
She never cares how
much work she has. NARRATOR: In 2008, when
their son was a year old,
00:06:38
the couple made the
surprise decision to return to their hometown in Brazil. LUCIENE MONTERIO: What I
heard is that the first child,
00:06:44
they need to have
a little surgery. Nothing very complicated. So that's what he said.
00:06:50
He made sure that time
that they were leaving. At first, it was supposed to
only Aliny go with the child.
00:06:56
But then Ricardo decided
that he wants to go as well. So they moved back to Brazil.
00:07:01
NARRATOR: In Brazil, the
couple had two more sons. But for Ricardo, the move
back home was a disaster.
00:07:07
He spiraled into drug addiction. Within a few years, the
couple were at breaking point.
00:07:13
She was having
problems with Ricardo. He was having
problems with drugs. He wasn't doing really well.
00:07:20
And she was afraid
that something bad will happen to him. [speaking portuguese] They broke up for
few days and then he--
00:07:41
Ricardo asked her if she
could to go back to him. NARRATOR: Aliny
accepted him back
00:07:46
in the family home in Brazil. But things got worse. EMMA KENNY: In spite of them
having children together,
00:07:52
there was violence pretty
much from the get go. So abuse did formulate
part of their relationship
00:07:57
from the early days. And unfortunately, it's one
of those scenarios where a lot of women choose to
stay because they think
00:08:03
about the kids and
the wider implications of leaving that relationship. DUARTE MENDONCO: The
matter of the fact
00:08:09
is that during those times,
Ricardo became quite abusive in his power over her,
manipulating her emotionally,
00:08:18
being verbally abusive,
and just making sure that he had some
sort of reach over Aliny
00:08:25
during that time. We know that from the
onset of the relationship that Godinho did
have some concerns
00:08:30
about Aliny leaving him. And in fact, this represented
itself acutely when he grabbed her by the throat.
00:08:37
NARRATOR: Ricardo Godinho
begged Aliny not to leave him. She agreed, on one condition.
00:08:43
She would give
him another chance if they came back to London. That's why they decided
to come back to London.
00:08:50
And when I spoke
with her by telephone and she said to me that she
was coming back, I was so happy
00:08:55
and I say, oh my God, I feel
like my sister is coming back, live near me. I was really, really happy.
00:09:02
NARRATOR: Luciene may have been. But Aliny and Ricardo
were returning to England with issues.
00:09:08
Ricardo was a drug addict,
the relationship was troubled, and the couple was struggling
to find somewhere to live.
00:09:14
Not the recipe the cake maker,
Aliny, had wanted on her return to Epsom. But Aliny's return
to Britain was
00:09:21
welcomed by all of her friends. They left in 2008 and
then they came back in 2014.
00:09:28
And they left with only
one child, the first child, and when they came
back, they have three
00:09:33
boys, three beautiful boys. NARRATOR: They settled
in the leafy suburb of Epsom, 13 and 1/2 miles
to the south of London.
00:09:41
And they moved in with
Aliny's friend, Vanessa. EVANESSA PASQUETTO FERRO:
[speaking portuguese]
00:10:04
DUARTE MENDONCO:
Back into the UK, Epsom was naturally
their place of choice because Vanessa was already
quite well established there
00:10:11
and fitted in. HANNAH DALTON: I think what
would have attracted Aliny and Ricardo to Epsom and this
area is the strong Portuguese
00:10:21
community. The fact that it's very,
very close to London, took great lengths to
that in terms of jobs
00:10:30
but also excellent
schools, green spaces, somewhere really
where if you're going
00:10:36
to come and settle
and have a family, it's just a fantastic
place to do it, and it provides
opportunity to do it.
00:10:44
NARRATOR: For three years,
to the outside world, everything seemed normal. LUCIENE MONTERIO: They were
a really, really nice couple.
00:10:51
That was my impression. They were really in
love to each other. They have, like, very lovely
nicknames to each other.
00:10:57
They used to cook together. They used to clean the house
together, everything together.
00:11:02
It was really beautiful. I really like it. And I had very, very good times
when I was living with them.
00:11:09
NARRATOR: But everything was not
OK in the Godinho relationship. The couple, now
with four children,
00:11:13
were occasionally at
each other's throats. As another housemate found
out all too graphically.
00:11:20
EVANESSA PASQUETTO FERRO:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: They'd arranged
a marriage of convenience
00:12:09
to make their home in England. Settled, they'd
started a family. But Ricardo Godinho was far from
the perfect husband for Aliny.
00:12:18
Would she stay with him? And how would he
react if she did not? [music playing] He had physically abused her.
00:12:30
He was using drugs. But by 2013, Aliny Godinho
was persevering with Ricardo. She told me, like, she
wasn't in love with him
00:12:39
anymore, because, like, all
the problems they had, he was-- she just-- she told me that
she just want a good father.
00:12:48
She just want him to be
good to the children. That's the only
thing she wants too.
00:12:52
And, you know, I think
he tried really hard, but people who take
drugs, you know,
00:12:57
one day they are very
happy, another day they are very unhappy. NARRATOR: No one but they
knew, inside the Epsom home
00:13:03
they now shared
with their children, Ricardo Godinho would
occasionally attack Aliny.
00:13:08
It happened whenever she
threatened to leave him. Things started
escalating quite a lot.
00:13:14
As their situation developed,
unfortunately into a very dire situation, Ricardo
then became increasingly
00:13:22
more controlling and-- and a bit more aggressive
as well in his posture. Aliny had indicated that
Ricardo tried to strangle her.
00:13:31
But then actually, Aliny
was quick to retract what she had said and
say, you know what,
00:13:36
I think I got things confused. In the heat of the moment,
I was very nervous. And I think it was actually
as Ricardo was describing,
00:13:43
I think he was just placing
his hand over my mouth. NARRATOR: Aliny was
hiding with daily abuse
00:13:47
inflicted by her husband. JANE MONCKTON SMITH: Women get
into relationships with men
00:13:52
like Ricardo
Godinho because they don't know that they've
got into a relationship
00:13:58
with a man like him. It's very, very hidden. He would become very
upset, very easily
00:14:03
over the smallest of things. She then became
sort of the person that he would vent
towards to and unleash
00:14:11
the sort of the
frustrations and the anger. NARRATOR: Despite the
tempestuous relationship,
00:14:16
Aliny had a baby girl to
add to her three boys. She wanted to create a
beautiful life for her children.
00:14:22
She has this gift to
make any place like a home. She would put pictures of
the child-- the children--
00:14:28
on the wall, were our
friends with the children. She was really, really nice
to make like a lovely home.
00:14:36
JANE MONCKTON SMITH:
Aliny was in a very, very difficult position. She's in a relationship
with a man who's dangerous,
00:14:42
and she knows he's dangerous. She's trapped financially. She's got four children.
00:14:48
Her life is being threatened. We know that because
she's been strangled. So for her, it's probably,
right, keep everything
00:14:57
nice and calm whilst
I'm in the relationship until I find a point
where I can leave it.
00:15:03
And that's probably the
safest thing for her to do. DUARTE MENDONCO:
Aliny never shared
00:15:08
with most of her
friends and family because she seemed
to be quite reserved. And to a degree, you
know, some suggest
00:15:14
that she was a little
bit embarrassed of the situation
as well, and also protective of her family too.
00:15:20
NARRATOR: In October
2016, Godinho setup a company, Godinho Maintenance. It grew fast.
00:15:26
Aliny did the paperwork
and the administration. He started feeling
the pressure of dealing
00:15:30
with a business, with a
growing business, essentially, and not being able to
quite cope with it.
00:15:35
NARRATOR: Ricardo
was out of touch with the accounting side of
the business, and at one point,
00:15:40
he became suspicious of Aliny. Seems to be a really critical
moment, which is why Godinho
00:15:46
accuses Aliny of not
telling him that he's in profit with his company. Now, even though that seems
like a strange connection
00:15:54
that he makes, that
somehow she's betraying him in that way, it does
suggest that he's
00:15:58
looking for an opportunity to
become blameful towards her. So he's seeking out a desire
to find her guilty of betrayal
00:16:05
in some way, and he uses
this to pinpoint that issue. NARRATOR: Professor
Jane Monckton Smith
00:16:10
has traced the causes
of escalating violence in cases of domestic abuse. Reviewing the
facts of this case,
00:16:16
she spotted the tracks
of potential tragedy. This is all about something
called the loyalty code.
00:16:23
The loyalty code is a
series of hidden tests that people like Godinho will
bring into the relationship.
00:16:33
And when he saw something
in the company accounts that he felt that she
had been disloyal about,
00:16:40
hadn't told him about, she
just failed the loyalty code. And that would have had
repercussions, consequences.
00:16:48
NARRATOR: Aliny had
done nothing wrong. Ricardo was seeing something
that simply wasn't there.
00:16:53
Having hidden her
abuse from the world during a visit with
friends one weekend, Aliny revealed the truth.
00:16:59
LUCIENE MONTERIO: We went
to the house to have, like, a lovely weekend, as usual.
00:17:03
And then suddenly she
sat with another friend, then she told him, like,
they are getting divorced.
00:17:09
And I was like-- I was, like, I could
not believe it. I was really sad. I was no--
00:17:15
I thought it wasn't true. But then she said
to me that he ask-- was he that asked for a divorce.
00:17:23
So it wasn't her. [speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: Ricardo
would later admit that he thought Aliny
was planning on leaving
00:17:43
him some time in 2018. Despite him appearing
possessive of Aliny, Ricardo himself confessed to an affair.
00:17:50
LUCIENE MONTERIO:
He told her that he had another woman that he
met, and he want to get
00:17:57
married with another woman. I think it's, like, he
really didn't want to. He just said that
because he thought she
00:18:03
was going to beg him to stay. Because he was, like,
she had four children. She has no place to go.
00:18:10
She depend on me so she--
of course she will stay. NARRATOR: Godinho wasn't
about to leave Aliny.
00:18:16
It was all a bluff
designed to elicit promises from her to stay with him. She is trapped.
00:18:22
She is a prisoner in
this relationship. She knows that, and
she's probably waiting
00:18:29
for her opportunity to get out. And he will know that she's
looking for that opportunity.
00:18:36
NARRATOR: Over Christmas
2018 while her best friend, Luciene, was
visiting family in Brazil,
00:18:40
everything escalated. Aliny had had enough. I was in Brazil at
that time for holiday,
00:18:47
for Christmas a holiday. And first-- at first,
when she told me she was getting
divorced, I was really
00:18:53
sad and scared because I said,
I won't be here to help you. There was a point, the turning
point, actually, for Aliny,
00:19:00
where she was like, I can no
longer be in this relationship because it is not working
for myself and the children.
00:19:06
So there might have
been a moment where everything clicked for
her, and it made sense
00:19:10
to turn her back on Ricardo. This is where he
actually fully snapped. NARRATOR: Never far from
the Godinho's story,
00:19:18
their status in the UK, they
had claimed to be married. Ricardo claimed to have
Italian citizenship,
00:19:25
but the right to be in the
UK was far from certain. And he actually
ripped up her passport
00:19:30
because he was so convinced
that she was going to leave him. When he destroyed the
passport of the kids--
00:19:35
because he was really
upset because she was going to get a visa because
of the children,
00:19:42
the children's passport. And he was really upset. The fact that Godinho
decides to destroy
00:19:47
the Italian passports
of his children, well, that makes perfect
sense, because he's
00:19:50
putting an obstacle
in the way of Aliny taking them away from him. DUARTE MENDONCO: When
she confronts him
00:19:55
about leaving and taking
the children with her, Ricardo's reaction was to
say that he would denounce
00:20:02
her or turn her in, rather, to
the home office due to the fact that, obviously, they came
in with a fake marriage
00:20:10
certificate. He's a very volatile person. He's a paranoid person. And that makes him
very dangerous.
00:20:15
He is not going to accept
the end of the relationship. He knows that, and
she knows that.
00:20:23
She was really afraid
of him because he was taking a lot of drugs. And she told me that one day she
was locking the bedroom, like,
00:20:30
for whole one-- one
whole day and night because she was
really scared of him. So she locked the
door, and then she
00:20:38
had to call a friend of her-- to her husband to
call Ricardo so he could get out the house so
she could give the children
00:20:46
some food and drinks. And she was really scared. DUARTE MENDONCO:
He's willing to go
00:20:53
to the extent of threatening,
denouncing her to the home office, of wrecking
the passports,
00:21:00
and this is just, like,
the tipping point. You know, because things then,
obviously, became a lot worse.
00:21:05
Then it was clear
for her that she had to do something about it. And that's when she
eventually went to the police
00:21:13
and made a formal complaint
against her husband. NARRATOR: Fearing for her
life, on December 27, 2018,
00:21:20
Aliny Godinho felt that she
had no choice but to turn to the authorities for help.
00:21:25
That would have been his
control starting to break down. So she's actually
taken a big step there.
00:21:32
NARRATOR: He had throttled
her, blackmailed her. What depth of violence
was Aliny Mendes,
00:21:37
known as Godinho, now facing? Her friends used
what they thought was a private social media
group to keep an eye on her.
00:21:45
EVANESSA PASQUETTO FERRO:
[speaking portuguese] And during this period where
she's living in this house,
00:22:03
she and her friends developed
this WhatsApp group that really worked as a support
network for Aliny
00:22:08
and her kids while
living in London. NARRATOR: Unbeknown
to the group, Godinho had tapped into
the WhatsApp messages
00:22:15
and began monitoring
their conversations. It was weird in the sense that
without Aliny ever being aware,
00:22:23
Ricardo was able to get
a hand, or get control, over the WhatsApp
group and making sure
00:22:29
that he was actually
into that WhatsApp group, because he had access
to an old SIM card
00:22:36
that used to belong to Aliny. And no one in the
group ever noticed it, but for a long
period, Ricardo was
00:22:42
able to keep track of
every single conversation, of every single move. NARRATOR: Far from having
a secret support group,
00:22:48
Aliny was unwittingly
letting Ricardo Godinho know where she was at
any time of the night or day.
00:22:54
JANE MONCKTON SMITH: This
was like a trigger for him. And he escalates in his
attempts to control her.
00:23:04
But now they're outside
of the relationship, these attempts at
control actually become what we call stalking.
00:23:16
NARRATOR: In December
2018, 41-year-old Ricardo Godinho showed
that he intended to keep control of the woman
he was, officially in the UK,
00:23:25
married to. He destroyed his
children's passports, leaving his wife,
Aliny, unable to easily
00:23:31
leave the country without them. But having left Ricardo,
Aliny did at least feel she was in a safer place.
00:23:39
LUCIENE MONTERIO:
She was very happy. She thought that
she was at peace, and she was feeling safe.
00:23:44
And she said to me that she-- all she wants to do was
looking after her children.
00:23:50
HANNAH DALTON: Aliny was
incredibly brave to get herself out of that situation. And it's an incredibly difficult
thing for anybody to do.
00:23:58
I think, especially for
somebody that has moved here from Brazil, I
don't think anybody
00:24:03
can ever underestimate
how hard that must have been for her to do. NARRATOR: Forensic
criminologist, Jane Monckton
00:24:09
Smith, recognizes this
moment as a turning point in the escalation of
Ricardo's threatening behavior.
00:24:15
Ricardo was stalking Aliny. And she goes to the
police, tells them all this because she
absolutely knows that he
00:24:25
is capable of killing her. The police took
this very seriously because all of these behaviors,
every single one of them,
00:24:32
is a massive red flag. NARRATOR: The local authorities
helped the police protect Aliny
00:24:36
by finding her a safe house. Aliny may have felt protected,
but mobile phones leave traces,
00:24:42
and Ricardo Godinho began
electronically tracking her. Data expert, Phil
Ridley, believes it
00:24:49
would not have been difficult. PHIL RIDLEY: Find My
iPhone is a system that Apple has that allows you
to locate your lost iPhone.
00:24:58
When you first get
your iPhone, you register it with
Apple using what's called an iCloud account.
00:25:04
So that ties your
phone to your account. In the event that
you lose your phone, you simply sign into
your iCloud account,
00:25:13
click on that I've
Lost My iPhone button and Apple's servers
will effectively talk to your iPhone.
00:25:20
He would have logged into
the Find My iPhone service and been able to see exactly
where that iPhone was.
00:25:26
EMMA KENNY: And that stalking
behavior is very much part of a dangerous
perpetrator's profile,
00:25:31
because it means that they
feel a level of ownership and possession
over the individual
00:25:35
that they are trying
to locate constantly. PHIL RIDLEY: Godinho
was reading messages,
00:25:40
reading emails,
using the location identification services. It was obvious he was
obsessed with everything
00:25:48
about his ex partner. Where she was, what she was
doing, who she was talking to.
00:25:53
NARRATOR: Aliny was far
from out of his grasp. EMMA KENNY: Even though she's
been taken to somewhere safe,
00:25:58
he finds her and
on two occasions, turns up and tries to break
in, and yes, he's arrested.
00:26:02
But he's also giving her
a very clear message-- you know, you can run,
but you really can't hide.
00:26:08
I'll find you. And that is sinister. His stalking, his need to
understand where she was,
00:26:14
who she was talking
to, what she was doing, the only way it's possible
is by using this technology.
00:26:19
He knew exactly
what she was doing and when she was doing it. Now, at the time that
he was doing this,
00:26:28
the relationship's gone. It's never coming back. He can see that. So it's more than
possible that he
00:26:36
was monitoring and
tracking her to look for an opportunity to kill her. NARRATOR: In fact,
Ricardo was reading
00:26:42
every WhatsApp exchange. Because he had access
to an old SIM card that used to belong to Aliny,
and no one in that group
00:26:49
ever noticed it. So for the longest time,
I'm not entirely sure how long this went for,
but for a long period,
00:26:56
Ricardo was able to keep track
of every single conversation, of every single move.
00:27:01
And it was only up until the day
that Ricardo decided to leave the group and they
saw the stamp saying,
00:27:09
Aliny has left the
group, that triggered the group to make the
realization that he
00:27:14
was there the whole time. NARRATOR: By this point,
Godinho's own family was so concerned
about his behavior
00:27:19
that they sent Aliny
text messages warning her of his violent threats. Was somebody from his
family who used to send
00:27:27
her message saying that he-- Ricardo say that he
was going to kill her. So I told her, go to
the police and show
00:27:34
this message from this person. And then she said to
me that she didn't want to cause any
problem between him
00:27:40
and this person of his family. She was really worried
about, like, the relationship
00:27:45
between those people. Ricardo Godinho's
online activity suggested the state his mind was in.
00:27:51
PHIL RIDLEY: It was shown
that Godinho had been using Google to search for
how a Brazilian man had
00:27:58
murdered his wife. It's very straightforward for
us to recover information that's
00:28:02
been deleted from a computer. The fact that he would
have deleted these searches
00:28:06
would have made no difference
to our ability to recover them. NARRATOR: Police bring
Godinho in for questioning,
00:28:12
but no charges are
brought against him. EMMA KENNY: By the time
Godinho is released,
00:28:17
he now meets a new problem, and
that is that social services have got involved
with the family,
00:28:22
meaning that he can only
have access to the children under supervised conditions.
00:28:26
He becomes obsessed
with his children. Godinho feels that
Aliny is going to take them away from him.
00:28:32
So this is a man
completely transfixed on keeping ownership of what
he feels is rightfully his.
00:28:39
NARRATOR: The stress was
having an impact on Aliny. At the beginning
of February 2018,
00:28:44
Luciene was shocked
when she saw her friend. LUCIENE MONTERIO: I saw her. She was very, very skinny.
00:28:49
She told me she
wasn't eating much. She was getting much sleep. And I was really sad for
her, like, when I saw her,
00:28:58
I didn't know it was like that. So then she explained-- she
started to tell-- speaking
00:29:03
to us, and she said that
he was threatening her, that he was going to kill
her, and she was scared.
00:29:11
JANE MONCKTON SMITH: It's
exhausting living with somebody who is controlling you,
monitoring you, tracking you,
00:29:18
threatening you, and this
had been going on for about 17 years for Aliny. LUCIENE MONTERIO:
And then I asked
00:29:27
her, Aliny, do you think Ricardo
will do anything bad to you? And then she said to me,
I think if I get to him
00:29:34
in the bad moment and I am
alone without the children, he would do it. But if I am by with one of the
children, he wouldn't do it.
00:29:45
So she believed that she was
safe because of the children. So from that week, she took
her little child, the girl,
00:29:53
with her to school
every day, because she felt, like, protected. Like, the little one was his
favorite one so she thought,
00:30:02
like, he won't hurt her. NARRATOR: Aliny told
friends that she might consider changing the children's
schools, but she was reluctant.
00:30:08
They were settled. EVANESSA PASQUETTO FERRO:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: On the 8th
of February 2019,
00:30:39
Aliny had an appointment
with the police. She canceled it so
one of the children
00:30:43
could attend a birthday party. Surely, she told friends,
he wouldn't attack me if I
00:30:48
was with one of the children. This idea, as far as Aliny is
concerned, that somehow being
00:30:53
with the children will
protect her from being harmed by Godinho is a myth. So it doesn't make sense that
she believes this but her bias
00:31:03
is this man would never kill
me in front of the children. I know this man. NARRATOR: In the afternoon,
Aliny starts the school run.
00:31:09
She takes the bus from
Central London, where her safe house was,
to Epsom, along with
00:31:14
her three-year-old daughter. Her every step was
being monitored. PHIL RIDLEY: We
see Godinho using
00:31:20
the Find My iPhone function to
track his daughter's iPhone. He sees they're
on the bus, and he
00:31:26
makes sure that
he's there waiting for them when they get off. NARRATOR: 17 years after setting
out for a new life in Britain,
00:31:32
what fate lay in store for
Aliny and Ricardo Godinho in a leafy English suburb? 39-year-old Aliny was relying
on being on a school run
00:31:47
with a child to protect
her from the man she was officially married
to, who was stalking her.
00:31:52
JANE MONCKTON SMITH:
Aliny knew her-- her life was in
danger, and I think she was fully
expecting that he would
00:31:58
make an attempt on her life. It wouldn't have been the
first time, after all. But she thought that he wouldn't
do it in front of people.
00:32:07
She thought that if
she wasn't on her own that she would be safe. So she thought, at some
level, if I'm out in public,
00:32:16
as long as there are
witnesses, he won't do it. NARRATOR: Around 3 o'clock
on a winter's day in England,
00:32:22
Ricardo Godinho makes his move. EMMA KENNY: On the
8th of February 2019, Godinho waits for Aliny
on the school run.
00:32:29
It's as simple as that. He sits there in wait for her. JANE MONCKTON SMITH: He was
absolutely fixated on the task.
00:32:37
He had decided today is the day. No matter what happens,
today is the day. So he sees her.
00:32:45
He knows where
she's going to be. He's been tracking her
and monitoring her. Just right there she is,
get the car up on the curb,
00:32:52
let's just get out
the car, doesn't even consider that his little
daughter is there.
00:32:56
NARRATOR: And he strikes. In spite of there being
children, his own child being there, the mothers on
the school run being present,
00:33:03
he goes across to her and
he stabs her to death. It takes 17 seconds to actually
go through with the plan.
00:33:13
But actually, if you think about
that, while 17 seconds seems like a short amount of time,
if you are being stabbed
00:33:18
repeatedly during that time,
it's an enormous amount of stabbings. And also, that period would
feel like it lasted forever.
00:33:25
NARRATOR: Godinho had savagely
murdered the mother of his four children in broad daylight.
00:33:30
News of the heartbreaking attack
filtered to Aliny's friends. We were watching TV or
something when my phone rang
00:33:36
and then when I pick up the
phone, a friend of ours, he said, Aliny's just been
killed, stabbed by Ricardo.
00:33:43
I throw my telephone away
and I start to scream and I-- I-- I-- I never felt so bad in
my life like that day.
00:33:51
I believe the
day of the murder came in as a shock
to most people when they found out about it.
00:33:58
For a lot of them, there was lot
of things beneath the surface that people were
just-- weren't aware,
00:34:05
because Aliny was never
the person to share those things with them. She didn't have time
to defend herself.
00:34:12
She didn't have any marks
on the arm or anything here. She didn't have time. It was really fast.
00:34:19
And-- and then what they
said that he stabbed her and then she was falling
down and he keeping
00:34:28
stabbed her without
saying anything and then when he'd done that,
he just look at his little one,
00:34:37
and then he walk away. EMMA KENNY: When you think
about how Godinho attacks Aliny,
00:34:44
it's on the school run. It's in front of
all the parents. It's in front of his
three-year-old daughter.
00:34:50
That is so symbolic
of how fixated he was on ending her life. He doesn't care about witnesses.
00:34:59
He doesn't care
about the future. LUCIENE MONTERIO: As a
mother, I guess, can you
00:35:05
imagine in her mind, like,
to be going, like, that away and scared that something was
happening with her little one.
00:35:12
So this lady came, say
to her, your baby's OK. So I hope she went on peace. [music playing]
00:35:29
It was really hard
to see in the news. NARRATOR: For Aliny's
younger brother, Alan,
00:35:33
the news of his sister's
death was devastating. ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese]
00:35:58
This led him to
a really dark place because he had just
lost his sister to the hands of her partner,
someone who was also
00:36:06
the father of the children. So also there's this instant
reaction of thinking, what does this mean
for the four kids?
00:36:14
You know, because they
just lost their mother, and it seems like they're
going to lose their father too.
00:36:20
It was a genuine
sense of disbelief that this could have happened. This is a really peaceful,
leafy suburb of London.
00:36:30
I think that was
compounded also by the fact that it had happened when
Aliny was on the school run,
00:36:36
she had her youngest
child with her, and there were other parents
and children present.
00:36:42
I know people who were
there with their children in their vehicles
and witnessed it.
00:36:48
And were just, just shocked
and upset by what happened. NARRATOR: After committing
the fatal attack,
00:36:54
Godinho all but gave himself up. Now, once the murder took
place, he dropped the knife
00:37:03
and fled the scene. Apparently, he spoke
to a good friend of his by the name of Ronaldo and
confessed to his crime.
00:37:12
And Ronaldo picked him up and
as they were discussing what to do next, it
seems like Ronaldo
00:37:20
was suggesting that he should
turn himself to the police. NARRATOR: During his 12-day
trial at Guildford Crown Court,
00:37:25
Godinho pleaded not
guilty to Aliny's murder but guilty of manslaughter. The fact that Godinho decides
to plead not guilty to murder
00:37:33
because he alleges that
he was not in control of his faculties,
that again shows
00:37:40
a lack of being willing to take
responsibility for his actions. He says it wasn't my fault. It
was a heat of the moment thing.
00:37:49
It was manslaughter. I was driven to it, essentially. But the problem with
that is that manslaughter
00:37:55
would show that there
was no premeditation. The level of premeditation
and the execution
00:38:02
of the actual crime
shows not only planning, but a huge amount
of planning behind it.
00:38:09
Who's going to buy
that story, you know, when a mother is
killed holding the hand
00:38:16
of her three-year-old child? There's nothing he can say. Nothing he can say that's
going to justify what he did.
00:38:26
EMMA KENNY: And it's
unsurprising, and also incredibly positive,
that the jury see
00:38:30
straight through
that, and rightfully so, he's convicted of murder. NARRATOR: On July 18,
2019, Ricardo Godinho was
00:38:36
sentenced to life in prison. He will serve a minimum
term of 27 years before being
eligible for parole.
00:38:44
ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese] NARRATOR: Aliny's death
was met with sadness
00:39:10
throughout what had become
her community in Epsom. HANNAH DALTON: What
has really impacted
00:39:16
the community is that there were
mums and children that saw what happened, and there are
friends of the children,
00:39:25
of Aliny's children, who are
living with the impact of this. And also, her friends and
those people known to her.
00:39:33
[speaking portuguese] She was like my little
sister but he was my friend. I never thought, like, he
would do something this to her.
00:40:00
Because, Aliny, she was like-- I think she was not
from this planet. She was so kind, so calm, so
nice, full of grace, harmless.
00:40:13
She was like this. She was, like, so sweet. NARRATOR: Aliny's brother,
Alan, moved his family to the UK
00:40:20
to take care of his
niece and nephews. They remain in the
southeast of England. ALAN CUPERTINO MENDES:
[speaking portuguese]
00:40:54
DUARTE MENDONCO:
It's difficult to say or even imagine how
life moves forward after an incident like this.
00:41:00
And I do feel like
there's obviously quite a lot of the incident that
is still very much ingrained
00:41:08
into their own memories,
and to how they even behave on a daily basis. But their choice
has been to focus
00:41:17
on the positive and
the good memories that they have of Aliny. NARRATOR: Theirs was a
complicated relationship, begun
00:41:24
in shared poverty in Belo
Horizonte with twists and turns which led to an unhappy
marriage in England
00:41:29
and ultimately, to the
death of Aliny Godinho. [music playing]