Heartache for the family of a British expat, 29, put to death in a gangland-style murder in 2019, with his body reduced to ‘broken, crushed and burnt flesh and bones’ as the only suspects acquitted by Portuguese judges

A six-year investigation into the gangland-style execution of a British expat in Portugal has suffered a major setback after the shock acquittal of the only suspects.

Portuguese prosecutors have charged two men with the murder of Joel Eldridge after his remains were discovered in August 2019 following a tip-off from British police. Among them was a drug dealer currently serving a life sentence in a British prison for the murder of a mother and her four-year-old son.

A heartbreaking indictment accused convicted killer Jacob Barnard, 35, of smashing Joel’s skull into more than 40 pieces with an ax after attacking him with a stun gun and stabbing and shooting him.

He was charged with murder and desecrating a body, along with alleged accomplice Joshua Sherwood, 31, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Prosecutors went to court against the pair, alleging that when 29-year-old Eldridge disappeared in July 2018, he was killed in a brutal execution that his killers had pre-planned because they feared he was about to return return to Britain and report them to the police for crimes. committed abroad.

Three judges have now cleared both men of any wrongdoing after a stop-start trial in the central Portuguese city of Castelo Branco.

The surprise decision came despite the fact that the sadistic Barnard, who had already been sentenced to eight years in prison in Portugal for drug trafficking and possession of an offensive weapon before his May 2021 murder conviction in Britain, refused to testify and Sherwood despite a subpoena did not come to court. .

The judges concluded that Mr Eldridge, who disappeared about six months after moving to Portugal to take part in a construction project, had died from the ‘multiple traumatic injuries’ inflicted on him.

They described the attack on him as “so violent” that he was reduced to an “amalgam of broken, crushed and burnt flesh and bones” and said his skull was in 43 pieces when his remains were found hidden in a grave in scrubland near Pedrogao Grande, more than a year after he disappeared.

But they ruled that the trial had not proven who was responsible for the brutal attack or who had disposed of the victim’s body.

Joel’s brother Samuel, who towards the end of the trial had spoken optimistically about the chances of a conviction, describing it as “another big step towards the justice Joel deserves”, was furious after learning that the two defendants were acquitted: ‘The verdict left us shocked, saddened, confused and angry.

“We hoped for justice for Joel and some closure for us as a family and for his friends.

‘The outcome – acquittal due to lack of evidence – achieved neither of us.

‘We now have to wait again before we can decide on the next steps.’

Their mother Jacki, who reported Joel’s disappearance to Sussex Police in August 2018 and made a video call to husband Alan in March around the time of what would have been his 30th birthday, added: ‘We are all struggling here along. Given the evidence we are aware of, this makes us wonder.”

Joel’s last contact with his family was in mid-July 2018, after wishing his brother a happy birthday on Facebook. He had traveled to Portugal in January that year to work on a house near the university city of Coimbra.

Prosecutors alleged in an indictment released in November 2022 that he was killed between July 17 and 28, 2018, in the living room of Sherwood’s home in the village of Macieira, about 90 kilometers southwest of Pedrogao Grande.

They said in their 20-page complaint: ‘For reasons relating to Joel Eldridge’s desire to return to Britain, and fearing that he might cooperate with the police there and report their drug trafficking in Portugal, Jacob Barnard and Joshua Sherwood have a plan. to kill him.’

They accused Barnard of snorting a line of cocaine after the gruesome crime and sending a cellphone photo of Joel’s body to an unknown friend.

Although Sherwood, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, was not accused of physically assaulting Mr. Eldridge, prosecutors alleged in their indictment that the pair “mutually agreed” to kill him.

The judges ruled that these claims had not been proven after retiring to consider their judgment after the final court hearing.

They emphasized in their 22-page written ruling, which was released in full for the first time late last week, that they could not “draw conclusions” from Barnard’s decision to refuse to testify in open court.

And they said a statement Sherwood gave to British police had no evidentiary value in a Portuguese court because he had failed to show up for his trial and therefore could not be cross-examined.

The judges’ ruling does not indicate that he will be prosecuted in Portugal for failing to answer his summons.

The three judges also maintained that none of the witnesses, including Joel’s mother, his Portuguese landlady and the Portuguese police, had offered evidence that would allow them to convict the defendants.

Police Inspector Sandra Roxo told the court that the tip-off that led them to the whereabouts of Joel’s remains came from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team.

Barnard, from the coastal town of Aberystwyth in Wales, was one of two men jailed for life after the murder of Gina Ingles and her son Milo on July 10, 2018.

They died in a fire in the middle of the night after petrol flowing through the front door was ignited at their home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Barnard and Andrew Milne, described as his enforcer, were each found guilty of two murders and one attempted murder after a trial.

Barnard received a life sentence, with a minimum term of 36 years. Furniture remover Milne from Hastings was given a life sentence of at least 34 years.

Police said it was their way of clearing a drugs debt believed to be around £400.

Fire investigators found Mrs Ingles hunched over her dead son, with the pair huddled under a windowsill in their burnt-out bedroom.

Gina’s partner Toby Jarrett, who was allegedly owed money for drugs, spent months in hospital after jumping from the first floor window of the house.

Sherwood was named in Barnard’s murder trial at Brighton Crown Court.

Prosecutors said he received a confession from Barnard that he and Milne went to a house in Eastbourne to threaten to enforce a drugs debt.

But Lewis Power QC told jurors that Sherwood was ’emboldened by greed and self-interest’ when he tried to take Barnard’s drugs operation from Portugal to Britain.