British plumber, 28, faces Portuguese trial over fatal stabbing of fellow Brit at 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party' festival
8 April 2024, 08:31
A British plumber is set to stand trial in Portugal over the fatal stabbing of another man from the UK at a music festival.
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Portuguese police said the unnamed 37-year-old had been lured to a secluded area away from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party festival, a small event being held in Pedrogao Grande in central Portugal last September.
The victim was stabbed "with exceptional violence" and someone had tried to cover up his body with leaves and branches, officers said.
The next day, Joshua Menkens, 28, the organiser of the festival, was arrested. Six months after the attack, Menkens, from Hertfordshire, has been charged with murder. Local authorities believe he had a psychotic episode.
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“An indictment was filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the district of Leiria against Joshua James Menkens, for the crimes of homicide, possession of a prohibited weapon and desecration of a corpse," police said in a statement given to the Times.
“Joshua underwent psychiatric evaluation, with the result that at the time he suffered from a psychic anomaly ‘psychotic episode/psychosis’."
Authorities have requested that Menkens be moved to a psychiatric facility while he awaits trial.
Some witnesses have reported that he had taken "hard drugs" during the festival.
A motive of the attack has proved elusive: Menkens did not know the victim, who lived in the UK, and they only met each other when he came to Portugal for the event.
Menkens' father said in September that his son did not have any obvious mental health problems and was a "genuine, caring guy".
He said this week: "It’s a very fraught time, a very slow legal system.
"My focus is on my son who I love to bits, and it wouldn’t be right or fair to make any further comment at this stage with the upcoming trial."
Menkens, a former plumber who had traded Bitcoin and spent time in Australia, had recently sought to reinvent himself as a festival organiser.
He set up the Portuguese event, but it did not meet expectations because of poor ticket sales, thought to have been made worse by heavy rain.
Menkens was said to have been "upset" and left the festival to spend some time alone.
Police said after the attack that Menkens had confessed the attack to a small group of revellers, who were shocked to discover the body.
Menkens was then accompanied to a nearby police station. Officers later found the knife thought to have been used in the attack, which had been wiped clean.
No trial date has been set. The period between arrest and trial is usually between six and 18 months in Portugal.
