On November 28, 2023, Malmö district court sentenced a 54-year-old man to five years in prison for grossly causing the death of another and gross breach of privacy. The Court of Appeal now sentences the man to 17 years in prison for murder and grave breach of privacy.
The 54-year-old man had let a man in his 20s sleep over at his house for some time. On these occasions they used drugs together. At the end of November 2022, the 54-year-old went to the police and told them that he had killed the other man in his apartment and that this was an accident. The deceased man’s dismembered body was found in the apartment’s fridge and freezer.
The district court considered that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the 54-year-old had the intention to kill or injure the plaintiff. The district court therefore sentenced him for grossly causing the death of another and for gross violation of grave peace due to the dismemberment of the body that he had admitted.
The Court of Appeal has found that the evidence presented by the prosecution is in itself sufficient for a conviction for murder. Some of the circumstances the Court of Appeal then placed importance on are the following. The 20-year-old has been killed with a stab in the throat by the 54-year-old who did not call 112 or, as far as appears, otherwise try to help the victim. The apartment has been carefully cleaned of blood, and the victim’s clothes and mobile phone are missing. The body has been dismembered so methodically that it strongly suggests that the perpetrator was in despair or confused after an accident. The victim had repulsive injuries to one hand.
– The 54-year-old’s story contains improbable or unrealistic elements and deviations to such an extent that the Court of Appeal considered that the claim of an accident has been disproved. This compared to the prosecutor’s evidence means that it can be held certain that the 54-year-old intended to kill the victim, says Court of Appeal lawyer Bob Nilsson Hjorth.
Unlike the district court, the Court of Appeal has found evidence that the person who claimed to be the mother of the deceased is. As a relative, she has therefore been awarded damages of SEK 110,000.