PORTUGAL’S Euro 2016 hero Eder’s dad was jailed for life for strangling his partner and dumping her body in a river because he suspected she was cheating on him.
The footballer revealed in a shock interview earlier this week that his father was behind bars in the UK for murdering his step-mum — but he didn’t name his dad or reveal any details of the crime.
Filomeno Antonio Lopes was convicted in October 2003 of killing Domingas Olivais, 30, and told he must serve at least 16 years behind bars as he was handed a life sentence.
A jury at Norwich Crown Court heard Lopes collected his partner from work in his car in April 2002, struck her with a steering wheel lock, strangled her and then dumped her body in the River Bure near Great Yarmouth.
Freak weather conditions meant her body travelled upstream where it was found on a sandbank instead of being washed out to sea.
Mr Justice Butterfield, setting Lopes’ tariff at 16 years at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, said he had defiled Miss Olivais’ body with a dead piece of wood and ruled there was a “significant degree” of premeditation and planning.
He told the Guinea Bissau-born asylum seeker: “This was a brutal killing of an innocent woman.”
Lopes was wanted by police in Portugal when he killed his partner in connection with three armed robberies against elderly women.
Reports at the time said Lopes had invented his past to get into Britain with his victim, claiming to be fleeing civil war in his West African homeland when he was really the subject of an extradition order over the armed robberies.
The extradition order was never exercised so he could serve his full sentence in Britain — and it is not known what its current status is.
The couple are understood to have met as children in Guinea Bissau, where Eder was born and spent the first two years of his life before moving to Portugal where his dad was already living.
Lopes and Ms Olivais lived at a hotel in Yarmouth while waiting for their asylum application to be processed after arriving in the UK in the 90s.
A family on a Broads cruiser spotted her body on the muddy banks of the River Bure on April 28, 2002.
Ms Olives was studying hairdressing at Great Yarmouth College at the time of her murder and worked as a cleaner at the town’s Asda supermarket.
Lopes, 37 when he was convicted, has always denied involvement in her death and claimed she disappeared after he dropped her off.
He told police he had taken Ms Olivais back to the hotel where they lived, then went to a nearby McDonald’s for a burger.
But the trial court heard he had not appeared on any CCTV footage taken inside the restaurant.
At the same time, his car was seen on another CCTV camera the night the trainee hairdresser disappeared by the river where her body was found.
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It was reported two years ago that Lopes could soon challenge his convictions if a test case at the Supreme Court ruled in favour of allowing DNA samples in a Suffolk murder case to be re-examined.
Lopes’ lawyer has described the evidence used to convict him as “mainly circumstantial” and said huge DNA advances could lead to “the truth and having the guilty behind bars” if a stick used to attack Ms Olivais was retested.
Norfolk Police said after Lopes was convicted that their investigation into Ms Olivais’ murder was one of the most complex they had ever undertaken.
They revealed the inquiry had cost more than £300,000 and involved statements from 11 different nationalities.
Detective Superintendent Martin Wright said in October 2003: “It’s certainly the most complex that I’ve been involved with as senior investigating officer.
“We’ve had to deal with a wide variety of people from different nationalities, and that clearly has entailed time, patience and the use of interpreters.
“We’ve also had to deal with a whole range of different experts covering different subjects.”
Eder — full name Ederzito Antonio Macedo Lopes — told Portuguese TV interviewer Cristina Ferreira earlier this week: “My dad is in prison since I was 12. My step-mum died and he was accused of killing her.
“He was sentenced to 16 years, I think.”
The footballer, who started his professional career in 2008 with Portuguese side Academica and made 15 appearances for Swansea last year before moving to Lille, added: “From the moment I went to Academica and began to earn money, I could go to England to see him in jail.
“Every time I had holiday, I would go to England to see him.”
Eder became a hero in his adopted nation after his thunderous right-foot 109th minute strike earned Portugal a surprise 1-0 Euro 2016 final win over host nation France.
He revealed soon after he signed for Welsh club that he moved to Portugal with his mum when he was just two so he could join his dad who was already living there.
He also revealed that at the age of eight he moved away from his family to a boarding college.
He joked on the club website in an interview published in December 2015 that he referred to himself as ‘Mr International’ because of his multi-cultural background.
He said: “I have a sister studying in Wolverhampton and I have another sister who has lived in England for a time.
“My brother lives in Portugal, but I have family everywhere.”
Explaining how he left home at an early age, he added: “I didn’t really grow up with my family. I grew up in a college.
“It was really good for me. It helped me to grow into the man that I have become and aided my football career.
“Of course, at times it was a little bit tough, which is normal, but I enjoyed it a lot. I met so many of my friends there, and it was good to have that life experience.”
His father was not named in the interview conducted by Cristina Ferreira, who earlier this month interviewed Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister.
He wasn’t asked where his dad was serving his sentence in the UK — and didn’t go into any detail about the circumstances surrounding his step-mum’s murder.
He started his Portuguese TV interview laughing and joking as he recalled Sunday’s match.
But his mood turned sombre as he was asked about his difficult upbringing which included a long spell in a boarding college.
He said before revealing his dad was in jail in the UK: “I came to Portugal with my mum from Guinea-Bissau.
“My dad was already in Portugal. There was a moment when my dad came to my mum’s house and ended up taking me with him and I went to live for some time with my dad. After that I was put into the college.”
Asked how he felt when he was put into the college, a state-run facility on the outskirts of Coimbra, because his parents could not afford to look after him, he replied, “I was sad, I didn’t find it at all nice. I felt abandoned.”
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