MWANA SOKA WA BRAZIL ASHIKILIWA KWA MAUAJI YA KIMADA WAKE NA KUWAPA MBWA WALE NYAMA YAKE (BRAZILIAN SOCCER STAR CHARGED FOR MURDERING HIS MISTRESS AND FED HER BODY TO HIS DOGS AFTER SHE HAD A BABY WITH HIM)

A star footballer is to go on trial accused of torturing and killing his mistress, then feeding her dismembered body parts to his pet dogs.

Married Bruno Fernandes de Souza, 27, a goalkeeper once tipped to play for Brazil, is alleged to have turned model Eliza Samudio 'into a human sacrifice' to preserve his reputation after she gave birth to his love child. He is already serving a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being convicted of assaulting and abducting Ms Samudio, 25, but will be tried for her murder later this year.

          

Killed': Brazilian model Eliza Samudio went missing months after she posed for these photographs to show the early signs of her pregnancy. Prosecutors at Bruno's trial will allege that part of her dismembered body was fed to the footballer's pet rottweilers

Prosecutors allege that Bruno planned Ms Samudio's kidnap and murder with eight others, including his wife Dayane, a teenage cousin and former detective Luiz Santos, all of whom have been charged with murder, conspiracy to murder and kidnapping. The goalkeeper, who played for Brazilian club Flamengo, is said to have watched as Santos committed 'barbaric tortures' on Ms Samudio before helping the former detective dismember her body.

Parts of the woman's body are alleged to have been fed to Bruno's dogs while the rest was buried in concrete. Bruno is accused of ordering his wife to tell people that his love child, who was four months old at the time of the killing, had been adopted by them from a poor relative.

 

Prosecutors will allege that Bruno planned Ms Samudio's murder after she told him she would take legal action to prove he was the father of her child. In a statement to police, his cousin claimed that, led by Santos, they kidnapped Ms Samudio from a hotel in Rio de Janeiro on June 4, 2010.

He said they drove her some 220 miles to a property in Belo Horizonte which the footballer and his wife used occasionally as a weekend retreat, where Ms Samudio was tortured. It is claimed that Santos played loud music on the stereo to drown out the woman's screams. Bruno, whose contract with Flamengo has been suspended, also faces charges of kidnapping, hiding a body and forming a criminal gang with intent to murder. He has maintained his innocence throughout, claiming he has a 'clear conscience'.