Maximino Couto, the 60 year old man who killed his girlfriend while on a weekend prison pass in November, has been found hanged in his cell.
Couto was on ‘weekend leave’ from prison when, on November 29th, he traveled to Ponte Caldelas and killed his girlfriend, María del Rosario Peso. He also injured three other people, one of them a National Police officer.
Couto was actually electronically tagged with a GPS device during his weekend pass, but a series of errors led to his movements being undetected. The security bracelet has an alarm system and this is triggered if the prisoner enters a so-called ‘exclusion zone’. When an alarm is sounded, the procedure is to immediately notify the security forces in that ‘exclusion zone’.
However, the officer on duty failed to detect the alarm and no alert was issued. Couto, who had obviously become aware that the system was not functioning properly, made his way to Mourente, Pontevedra, where his ex-wife was living.
Fortunately for her she was not at home but two neighbours, who testified against Couto at his trial, were not so lucky and received stab wounds.
Couto was finally detained and returned to prison where, at around 06:00 this morning, he was found dead in his cell. He had apparently hanged himself using a sheet from the bed.
In the wake of the failures with the GPS alarm system, an overhaul of the surveillance system has been ordered.
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