A circus performer has been arrested for stabbing his fiancee to death with a pair of scissors because she tried to stop him snorting cocaine.

Circus artist Andre Luis Coutinho, 18, is accused of stabbing his fiancee Kauany Circo, 32, who was also a circus performer, in the neck with a pair of scissors at their home in the municipality of Catanduva in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo on 6th November.

Her body was found in a trailer at Circo Encantado (Enchanted Circus) on Jose Nelson Machado Avenue in Catanduva.

The couple had only been together for three months and they announced their engagement on Facebook on 13th October. They lived together and toured Brazil with the circus.

According to local reports, the suspect turned himself over to the police hours after allegedly murdering his partner, who was 14 years his senior.

He reportedly told officers that he is a habitual cocaine user and that his fiancee was trying to stop him taking a line when a row started.

According to the suspect’s statement, she pushed him and he grew angry, snatching a pair of scissors and jabbing them into her neck.

The newspaper Gazeta de Rio Preto said the suspect has already appeared before Judge Patricia da Conceicao Santos, who decided to place him in preventive custody.

He was taken to a prison in Catanduva and the case is being investigated as a femicide.

The victim’s body was buried in her hometown on 9th November.