Swedish serial killer granted new trial
Convicted Swedish serial murderer Thomas Quick has been granted a new trial for the 1988 killing of a tourist in Dalarna in central Sweden after he recanted his confessions to several killings.
Quick has been convicted in six different trials for the murders of eight people. During police questioning, he has confessed to committing more than 20 murders, which he claims he committed in Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
But in several programmes broadcast last year by Sveriges Television (SVT) journalist Hannes Råstam, Quick has taken back all of his previous confessions.
In April, his lawyers filed a formal request with the Svea Court of Appeal seeking a new trial for a case involving the murder of 24-year-old Yenon Levi, an Israeli tourist who was found dead near the side of a deserted forest road in Dalarna in 1988.
In documents accompanying the petition, Quick’s lawyer Thomas Olsson argued that a number of mistakes took place during the police investigation of Levi’s murder.
“The conviction is based on a confession from a mentally ill and drugged person. In addition, relevant investigative material was withheld from the court,” Olsson told the TT news agency when he filed the petition, which also included the name of another possible culprit in Levi's killing.
There was also information from witnesses that the alternative assailant, who is said to have strong anti-Semitic views, was connected to Levi.
The appeals court said that the new evidence presented by Quick creates doubts about whether he is indeed guilty of the crime for which he has been convicted.
The court went on to say that there are sufficient grounds to try the case once again in order to revisit the question of Quick’s responsibility for the crime and thus granted a retrial.
Quick, who has since changed his name to Sture Bergwall, has been indicated that he will petition for retrials for each of the eight murders for which he’s been convicted.
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Quick has been convicted in six different trials for the murders of eight people. During police questioning, he has confessed to committing more than 20 murders, which he claims he committed in Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
But in several programmes broadcast last year by Sveriges Television (SVT) journalist Hannes Råstam, Quick has taken back all of his previous confessions.
In April, his lawyers filed a formal request with the Svea Court of Appeal seeking a new trial for a case involving the murder of 24-year-old Yenon Levi, an Israeli tourist who was found dead near the side of a deserted forest road in Dalarna in 1988.
In documents accompanying the petition, Quick’s lawyer Thomas Olsson argued that a number of mistakes took place during the police investigation of Levi’s murder.
“The conviction is based on a confession from a mentally ill and drugged person. In addition, relevant investigative material was withheld from the court,” Olsson told the TT news agency when he filed the petition, which also included the name of another possible culprit in Levi's killing.
There was also information from witnesses that the alternative assailant, who is said to have strong anti-Semitic views, was connected to Levi.
The appeals court said that the new evidence presented by Quick creates doubts about whether he is indeed guilty of the crime for which he has been convicted.
The court went on to say that there are sufficient grounds to try the case once again in order to revisit the question of Quick’s responsibility for the crime and thus granted a retrial.
Quick, who has since changed his name to Sture Bergwall, has been indicated that he will petition for retrials for each of the eight murders for which he’s been convicted.
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