Leighanne Rumney violent assault – woman gets 6.5 years

One of the women accused of kidnapping and assaulting a British citizen in 2015 today was sentenced to six and a half years’ imprisonment for aggravated abduction.

According to the Portimão court, it was proven that Eliana Carvalho, 24, committed a crime of aggravated abduction, alongside the offenses of torture or other cruelty, degrading or inhuman treatment, and acting with excessive, gratuitous, total and wanton violence towards Leighanne Rumney, 22 at the time.

The other two suspects accused of kidnap and physical offenses, the convicted 40-year-old woman’s mother and a 22-year-old man, both were acquitted on the grounds that their involvement in the crime was not proven in court.

According to the judge, Patrícia Avila, the defendant “acted with direct intent” and her actions had “direct consequences” to the life of the victim, who was forced to leave the country and return to the United Kingdom.

After hearing the sentence, the woman repeatedly insulted the judge and was taken from the Court by her mother, who asked her to shut up, arguing that she could appeal the six-year prison term.

The court said that it was impossible for the authorities to identify two other people – a man and a woman – who also were allegedly involved in the crime.

On May 26, 2015, Leighanne Rumney, a British citizen who worked at the Hot Shot bar in Albufeira, got in a car and was taken to a place near Alcantarilha railway station where she was assaulted by two women who punch and kicked her and cut off her hair with scissors after stabbing her repeatedly in the back.

The victim reported to the court that she was asked to enter the car under the pretext of “talking about João,” a man she had met at the bar and who was the partner of Eliana Carvalho, one of the defendants.

The three alleged attackers, said by police and court officials to be from the local Roma community from Porches near Lagoa, picked up Leighanne in their car, which she got into despite being mid-argument, in a move she admits was “naive.”

The British woman said she was taken along country roads to a heavily vegetated area where both defendants beat her and tore her clothes, leaving her with cuts all over her body and pouring blood.

Rumney said she did not realise the number of blows she has received and said that after the attackers had abandoned her, she headed to a road for help.

At the scene, near the train station of Alcantarilha, the victim was helped by several people, who alerted the authorities. She then was taken to hospital.

See also: ‘Albuferia waitress ‘stripped, stabbed and scalped’ for having affair’