A British banking executive accused of stabbing a teenager to death with a broken bottle in Portugal has insisted that he was defending his friend.
Daniel Dunbar has gone on trial in Lisbon over the horrific murder of 19-year-old Daniel Galhanas nearly 10 months after losing his battle against extradition from Britain.
Dunbar, who was arrested in the UK in June after a two-year-long manhunt, stands accused of stabbing the teenager with a broken glass bottle after a fight broke out in the trendy Bairro Alto neighbourhood in October 2023.
Video footage captured the deadly brawl, with one man seen launching a bottle at Galhanas’ friend before stabbing him, running off as the teen stumbles and collapses in a pool of blood on the cobbled streets.
Dunbar, who took the stand on Thursday, said he got involved in the violent altercation after a gang of Portuguese men began attacking someone on the street, prompting him and his friends to intervene.
Addressing the court, the Brit, who faces a potential life sentence if convicted, said: ‘We saw a group assaulting another person as we were walking down the street and asked them to stop.
‘They began to chase after us, saying they were going to stab us, and we threw bottles at them.’
‘When a friend of ours looked at them and offered them a handshake so they’d stop, he was hit by a bottle, and I panicked and ran to defend him.’
Denying prosecution claims he was hiding the broken bottle in his hand at the time, he added: ‘I just remember the sound of the broken bottle, it was all very confusing.’
British bank executive Daniel Dunbar (pictured) is accused of killing Daniel Galhanas in 2023
Daniel Galhanas (pictured) was 19 when he was killed with a broken glass bottle on the streets of Lisbon
Footage captured the horrific moment the Portuguese teenager was fatally stabbed in the neck
He also admitted making a mistake by fleeing Portugal for Britain the day after the incident, after seeing the horrific video of the attack.
‘I saw the video the day afterwards and realised someone had died.
‘I should have gone to the police instead of leaving the country, but I was immature, I didn’t trust the police, and I was afraid of being imprisoned.’
Shortly before his extradition, it emerged Dunbar, from Sidcup, Kent, had been working in the Investor Management Department at the Royal Bank of Canada in a role ‘centred on legal compliance.’
Local reports at the time of the killing said the murder victim was fatally stabbed in the neck while trying to defend a friend who was part of a gang of muggers.
Family members have denied that Galhanas was involved with the gang and said he was only trying to help his pal when he was attacked.
The seven-page prosecution indictment, partly read out on the opening day of Dunbar’s trial, said the Brit and a group of seven other holidaymaker friends got involved in a heated exchange of words with the group Galhanas was with after seeing them ‘kicking and punching’ a man named as Duarte Pereira Paz.
The public prosecutors alleged in the indictment that one of the Portuguese group ran away after striking a pal of Dunbar’s in the head with a bottle.
The written document adds: ‘Seeing this assault, the accused man armed himself with the neck of a broken bottle he hid in his left hand, approached Daniel Filipe Lopes da Conceicao Galhanas and with the weapon, struck him on the right side of the neck in an action which made him fall to the ground as he bled to death.
‘Afterwards, and with his friends, he fled the scene.’
Revealing the victim suffered fatal injuries to his carotid artery and a jugular vein and was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Lisbon’s Sao Joao Hospital, it added: ‘The accused man acted to deliver the blow he did, in an area of the body of the victim where he knew there were large-calibre veins and arteries, like the jugular vein and carotid artery which would cause injuries that could lead to his death.’
‘He did so knowing the broken bottle had sharp edges and was therefore an ideal weapon to achieve the desired result.’
Prosecutors said in the indictment that Dunbar acted ‘deliberately and consciously’ and claimed that he and his friends bought new return tickets to the UK after the street killing so they could return earlier than planned, and left from Faro Airport instead of Lisbon Airport to ‘prevent police locating them.’
An online petition demanding ‘justice for Daniel Galhanas’ addressed to Portugal’s then-president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Britain’s Ambassador to Portugal, said: ‘On 14 October 2023, at around 4am our son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend Daniel Filipe Lopes da Conceição Galhanas, only 19 years old, after a night out with friends celebrating one of their birthdays at a bar in Bairro Alto in Lisbon, was on his way home, accompanied only by a friend.’
‘They both came across what they thought was a fight, and finding themselves surrounded by those involved, Daniel, in an attempt to defend the girl who was with him and calm the situation, opened his arms as if asking for calm while repeating ‘STOP, STOP’ in English to the person wielding a broken bottle as a weapon.
‘And it was at that precise moment that Daniel became the aggressor’s target, who stabbed him in the throat with the bottle.
‘Fully aware of what he had done and without even stopping for a minute to help, the attacker, a British national, fled immediately and in less than three hours was at Lisbon airport boarding a flight to his country of origin.’
It added: ‘Daniel was an honest, responsible young man and a friend to EVERYONE, who always acted in the name of PEACE…
‘He had finished his studies and got his first job at the Public Security Police workshops and was therefore very happy and proud.
‘In his own words, he was finally going to ‘be able to help his mother…’!
‘Such was his sense of responsibility and gratitude towards his family and for everything they had always done for him.
‘Now there is a whole family torn apart, trying to survive an immeasurable grief, a father and mother trying to survive, driven by their responsibility towards their youngest son and their anxiety to see justice done.’
The accusation warrant submitted before Dunbar’s extradition said the maximum jail sentence for the homicide charge the Brit is being tried on ranges from 12 years to a 25-year life term.
At the time of his arrest in the UK, Dunbar was said to have worked in a role ‘centred on legal compliance’ for the ‘Investor Management Department at the Royal Bank of Canada.’
Companies House records show the city whiz kid previously ran his own company called Dunbar Eight Limited, when he described himself as a financial advisor.
Dunbar contested extradition, claiming that he was suffering from PTSD, was a suicide risk and was mentally unstable after suffering a series of injuries while playing rugby.
District Judge David Robinson, who ruled the British national should be extradited in March last year, said in his judgment, referring to him as RP while he was still being held on remand in prison in the UK: ‘Immediately prior to the RP’s arrest, he was living independently and working in a responsible position for a bank.
‘In my judgment, the circumstances do not come close to being such that the requested person’s extradition would be oppressive on account of his mental condition.
‘On arrival in prison, the RP was assessed to be mentally stable.
‘Plainly being accused of murder, remanded in custody and facing extradition to Portugal has caused the RP to experience stress and hardship.
‘His extradition will no doubt cause further such stress and hardship.
‘However, the current state of his mental health is that his depressive episode is likely of moderate intensity, and the RP is not taking any medication in respect of it.
‘I am satisfied that the RP’s extradition would not be disproportionate.’
Dunbar’s trial is due to resume next week and is scheduled to finish in the second week of next month.
