A YOUNG WOMAN who was strangled to death in a flat in Cork begged the man accused of her murder to seek urgent psychiatric help amid his struggle to cope with with the breakdown of their relationship, a court has heard.

Miller Pacheco (32) of Formiga in Brazil is on trial at a sitting of the Central Criminal Court in Cork. He has denied murdering Bruna Fonseca on New Year’s Day, 2023 at his flat in Liberty Street in the city.

The pair had been a couple for five years. However, they broke up in November 2022 just days after Pacheco arrived in Ireland.

The deceased(28) had moved to this country from her native Brazil in September 2022 and was working at a hospital. The university graduate, who was a qualified librarian, was also attending English classes in Cork.

Today the jury heard transcripts of recordings the deceased had made on her phone of conversations between herself and Pacheco. Five of the recordings were from 17 December 2022 whilst the sixth occurred on 20 December, 2022.

In one exchange on 20 December, the deceased said that Pacheco was “obsessed with sadness” whilst accusing him of always trying to manipulate her. She said he needed to see a doctor because the love he felt for her was “sick.” She stressed that Pacheco was 30 years old and needed to “grow up.”

The deceased said that Pacheco required treatment stating “otherwise every relationship you have will be this way.” She urged him to realise that “there is not only Bruna on earth.”

“I want to be single and you won’t let me. What is the other path? Go to a convent? Become a nun?”

The deceased told him that she would have done things differently if she could whilst pleading with him to “go to a doctor, go to a psychiatrist.”

At one point in the lengthy conversation, the deceased pledged to pay for Pacheco’s plane ticket home to Brazil. Pacheco then accused her of despising him and stated that they had been “a family” and that she had liked it.

The deceased said that she “made a mistake’ but that it would also be an error to stay with him as the “feelings” were not there. She said that that her life wouldn’t stop because their relationship hadn’t worked out and insisted that she was “already moving on.”

The deceased said that it was “tiring” to listen to Pacheco as he was complaining but not doing anything to change his circumstances. She insisted it was time for him “to face reality and to stop playing the victim.”

She told Pacheco that he was a “handsome” man and that he could make friends in this country.

The deceased said that she had walked on egg shells during their previous eight month break up in Brazil. She said that during their previous split she was afraid that if she did not reply to his texts he would “kill himself.“

“I cannot live like this. It is wrong. The smallest sign it is not going to work out, you say “I am going to kill myself.” I have to be perfect 24 hours a day. During the eight months [split] I would only be talking to you because I would believe that if I did not talk to you, you would not wake up the next morning.”

The deceased stressed that it their roles were reversed she “wouldn’t be blackmailing the other person.”

Pacheco asked her to get with him “one last time” before he left Ireland to go home to Brazil. She said that when he received treatment he would realise how much he had humiliated himself “for crumbs.”

“I am telling you to get treatment. Please let me go, let me go, let me go.”

Meanwhile, during the five recorded exchanges between the pair on 17 December, the deceased urged her ex boyfriend to take steps to improve his life following their split. She told him that he would ‘recover’ but that he would “have to want it.”

She told Pacheco that he needed to go to see a psychiatrist, engage in therapy and take his medication. The deceased insisted that they were bad for each other and that there were other people who could assist him.

The deceased said that Pacheco was not absorbing the finality of their split.

“You don’t want to accept that it is over. You will find someone else who will value you.”

She said that Pacheco had to “bounce back” in life “solely and exclusively” for himself and not in the hope that she would take him back. She indicated that Pacheco seemed to be unable to handle being told ‘no.’

Pacheco accused the deceased of promising him that “everything would be wonderful’ in Ireland. The deceased replied that she knew how to be alone whilst Pacheco struggled with it. She said that if he moved back to Brazil he would have the support of his family.

Pacheco said that she didn’t understand what he was going through as “no one ever did what you [Bruna] did to me.”

The deceased said that she would have “carry the guilt” for the rest of her life for what she had done to Pacheco. The deceased again stressed that Pacheco needed a qualified person to assist him on his road to recovery.”

“Miller go look for help. For the love of God. You are whining and playing the victim. I destroyed you but do you want to continue to destroy yourself?”

She said that they were “glued to each other” and that what was occurring was “not healthy”.

Pacheco stated that it was “easy to sort out the lives of other people.” The deceased said that Pacheco was “making psychological terror” because she had cheated on him and didn’t want him anymore.

Pacheco admitted that he felt “hate” because the deceased had a date with a person she wanted to meet. The deceased said that all she wanted was for Pacheco to be well.

He insisted that she was being fake and accused her of not thinking of his well being when she cheated on him.

Pacheco asked her “not to leave” him alone and said that they could be friends. He urged her not to abandon him. She said that she couldn’t be friends with someone who was so emotionally attached to her.

The jury previously heard evidence from Assistant State Pathologist Margaret Bolster. She stated that the deceased died of injuries consistent with manual strangulation. The deceased also suffered over sixty external and internal injuries to her forehead, scalp, hands, arms and lower limbs.

The trial will continue tomorrow before a jury of seven women and five men.