A 32-year-old man has been found guilty of the murder of his former girlfriend by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Cork.

Miller Pacheco had denied murdering 28-year-old Bruna Fonseca following the breakdown of their relationship.

The two-week trial had been told that Pacheco had been in a relationship for five years with Ms Fonseca in their native Brazil, before he followed her to Ireland where she ended the relationship within a week.

Ms Fonseca was a university graduate and qualified librarian who moved from Brazil to Cork in September, 2022 for a better life.

But, within three months of the move, gardaí found her body under a blanket on a bed at her ex-boyfriend’s flat.

Pacheco had choked Ms Fonseca and was charged with her murder, which he denied. He had followed Ms Fonseca to Cork in November, 2022, but she ended their relationship within a week.


Bruna Fonseca was murdered two months after moving to Ireland

During Pacheco’s two-week trial at the Central Criminal Court in Cork, the jury heard Ms Fonseca had told him she did not love him and asked him to move on with his life. She begged him to go to a doctor to help him to cope with the breakup.

The prosecution described him as a self-absorbed coward.

Between the middle of November and the day she died, he sent her almost 2,000 text messages.

The court was told he recorded her on his phone dancing and kissing another man at a New Year’s Eve party.

Later, she agreed to go back to Pacheco’s flat at Liberty Street in Cork in the early hours of New Year’s Day to call family in Brazil.

They fought when she wanted to leave and he told her not to go. He claimed she hit him and he defended himself.

Ms Fonseca died of asphyxia after he strangled her.

This afternoon, after deliberating for an hour and two minutes, the jury returned a guilty verdict.

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford excused the seven women and five men from jury service for five years.

She will sentence Miller Pacheco at noon tomorrow.

Members of Ms Fonseca’s family cried and embraced after the verdict. Some of her family had travelled from Brazil for the trial.

Pacheco was embraced by his parents before he was led away.