Brazilian footballer jailed for murdering, feeding ex-lover to dogs

Brazilian footballer Bruno Fernandes de Souza has been jailed for 22 years for ordering the kidnap and murder of his ex-girlfriend.

According to the Daily Mail, Bruno, 28, had his former girlfriend Eliza Samudio, 25, the mother of his son, dismembered and fed to his pet Rottweilers.

He was also found guilty of hiding Samudio's body and kidnapping their son in 2010, reported BBC News.

Bruno Fernandes de Souza. File Pic/AFP

Goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza is accused of having Eliza Samudio killed to avoid paying child support for their baby.

De Souza, 27, who was tipped to play for Brazil in the 2014 World Cup, has always denied knowing what happened to 25-year-old model Ms Samudio.

But during dramatic scenes at his trial, the footballer wept as he told how his best friend Luiz Henrique Romao paid someone to kill her.

He told the court that while he didn't order her murder, he had "accepted" it.

The former goalkeeper admitted to knowing what had happened to Samudio, but denied being responsible. He blamed the two other defendants in the case, his friend Luiz Henrique Ferreira Romão and former police officer Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, for the crimes.

Bruno broke down in court and said that Romão had hired a hitman to kill Samudio, according to 9 News. He said he heard about what had happened to the former model from his younger cousin, Jorge Rosa, who witnessed the killing.

Police allege that Bruno ordered Samudio's murder after she threatened to take legal action that would force him to make child-support payments. While her body has never been recovered, she was said to be strangled, before being cut up and fed to the dogs.

The case has attracted huge media attention in Brazil, BBC noted, where it has been compared to the trial of OJ Simpson.

Eliza Samudio. File Pic/AFP

The 25-year-old model was lured to a Rio de Janiero hotel on June 4 thinking she was going to take a DNA test to prove the married Flamengo football club star was the father of her son, born in February 2010, prosecutors said, the paper reported.

Samudio was kidnapped and taken to the star's vacation pad in the city of Belo Horizonte, more than 200 miles away, where she was strangled and dismembered by a gang of Souza's pals, authorities said.u00a0