British plumber arrested over Portuguese commune murder 'lured Brit to woodland'

28 September 2023 , 10:03

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Josh Menkens' (pictured) dad says he's a "nice, loving, caring individual" (Image: Linkedin)

A plumber who allegedly slaughtered a fellow Brit in an off-grid commune in Portugal "lured" the victim to a patch of remote forest before knifing him repeatedly until he died, say police.

Josh Menkens, from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, is alleged to have stabbed the 37-year-old multiple times before "desecrating" his corpse and trying to conceal the "exceptional display of violence" by hiding it, police say. The 27-year-old is now in custody of the Portuguese police and has already been interviewed twice by a judge in Leiria, central Portugal.

Troy Menkens, Josh's dad, has flown out to support his son and was seen outside the court yesterday. He insisted his boy was "kind and caring" despite the charges held against him. Menkens was reportedly one of the organisers of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party festival, which was attached to the remote Libelinha Venture, an off-grid commune run by Oxford-educated nature lover Xavier Hancock and his lover Arantxa Atauri.

The Libelinha Venture off grid commune

After the killing, rumours swirled that the pair had been playing a "suicide challenge" - in which players are set tasks culminating with them taking their own life. Investigators have now ruled this out.

In a statement a few hours after the incidnet, Portugal's Policia Judiciaria (PJ) said: "The PJ's Central Directorate, with the collaboration of Pedrogao Grande's GNR police force, can confirm it arrested a man for the alleged crimes of homicide and desecration of a corpse in the town of Soalheira.

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"The defendant, a foreigner and organizer of a party on a rural property, took the victim to an isolated forest location where, armed with a knife, he attacked him with exceptional violence hitting him in several areas of the body and causing his death. After committing the homicide, the suspect hid the body using tree branches and pieces of clothing.

Police working at the crime site (CM tv)

"Later, he revealed the acts he had committed to the other participants of the party. After confirming their veracity, they went to the GNR in Pedrogao Grande along with the suspect to report what had happened. The victim, a 37-year-old foreign man had travelled to Portugal to participate in the event and apparently did not know the defendant personally.

"It has not yet been possible to determine the motive for the crimes, but any relationship with games or online challenges has initially been ruled out. The 27-year-old detainee was present during his first judicial interrogation which resulted in his preventive detention."

Standing outside the court, Josh's father recalled the moment his son contacted him from the police station on Sunday. Troy, 52, told the MailOnline: "I got a call from him out of the blue, just before midnight on Sunday. My son was talking at a million miles an hour, in a head-melt, firing stuff at me. I was trying to be as calm as I could and find out where he was being held and how I could get there."

Xavier Hancock and Arantxa Atauri run the commune (Xavier Hancock/Facebook)

Troy called for people to avoid speculating while there are still a number of unanswered questions. When asked about the victim, Troy said he only knew his nickname and other details that he read in the paper.

Troy added: "Every dad who cares about their son will always say they're wonderful, of course, but Josh is a nice, loving caring individual who everyone should want in this world, he's just a lovely person, genuine and caring." He added that his son is struggling with the "circumstances" and his "overwhelmed and in a head-melt", but did not say anything more about the victim.

The Welwyn-Garden-City businessman said he was struggling with the Portuguese justice system, which he said is highly secretive and difficult to navigate. The knife the suspect Josh allegedly used is said to have been recovered at the scene after they went with officers to the remote woodland spot where the British man’s body was found.

Footage published by Portuguese daily Correio da Manha showed GNR officers lifting the dead man’s body on a stretcher after it was covered with a sheet and putting it into the back of a nearby police van. The group that raised the alarm are thought to have attended a private party on Saturday night near the area where the dead man’s body was found before heading to the remote woodland spot.

Gerard Couzens