Belangalo
12-18-2009, 11:37 PM
Sweden´s worst serial killer in history, or a mythomaniac who has confessed a number of murders while really being innocent? The true nature of Thomas Quick has been discussed among legal scholars, journalists and pundits for more than a decade. A year ago Quick claimed innocent and is now given an appeal.
“This is the prelude to the biggest legal scandal in Swedish legal history”, says Leif G W Persson, professor in criminology, to newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
30 confessed murders
Today it was announced that Svea Court of Appeal grants serial killer Thomas Quick, aged 59, an appeal in the case of a murder in 1988 on the Israeli tourist Yenon Levi.
Quick is sentenced to eight murders, but has told that he has murdered more than 30 people. Since 2008 he denies all the murders.
Svea Court of Appeal took into account the new facts and evidence that Quick has stated, the court writes. The Court of Appeal pointed out that there was no evidence to support that Quick could be bound to the crime in the murder case.
“It´s so wonderful. It is a relief and I am very satisfied and happy. This decision pushes the other convictions overboard”, says Sture Bergwall, as Thomas Quick now calls himself.
According to lawyer Thomas Olsson, a snowball has now been set in motion.
“More appeal applications are on their way”, he says to news agency TT.
Cravings for drugs made him confess
It was in a series of investigative television reports last autumn that Thomas Quick explained to journalist Hannes Rådstam how his own quest for attention, positive feedback from prosecutors and therapists, and the dependence on anti-anxiety drugs entrapped him in a lie about being a serial killer.
The more murders he confessed, the more attention he was given, and his therapist at the forensic psychiatry unit rewarded him by giving him highly addictive medicine.
But many doubted his guilt. Among else his own brother and many of the relatives to the victims. The information given by Quick about the murders was sometimes highly conflicting, far-fetched or openly wrong. This did however not stop six district courts from convicting him for eight murders.
There has neither been a shortage of people who believed that Quick is one of the worst serial killers ever known in northern Europe. Among them prosecutor Christer van der Kwast (now Director of the public prosecution authority), who worked with all criminal investigations and trials in which Thomas Quick was made responsible for the murders. Also a number of journalists are convinced that Quick, who earlier has been convicted for some sadistic acts of pedophilia, really are a serial killer.
Over the years the debate has become rather infected, but now it seems like those who do not think Quick is guilty of the murders, and that the whole thing is a legal scandal, may become heard.
A scandal
One of the harshest critics, Leif GW Persson, professor at the police academy in Stockholm, now believes that there will not be any new trials against Thomas Quick, since no prosecutor will be willing to take the case.
“I do not think this will go to trial for the simple reason that there will be no prosecutor who wants to pursue this. They will say that ´we have no claims on Quick´. In this situation, his defense counsel will request that he become acquitted, and so will then be done pro forma, and he gets a judgment of not guilty”, Persson says.
He describes what has happened as a huge scandal. He also want the judicial system to initiate an investigation of false or unwarranted prosecution, unless the earlier decision by the prosecutor is statute-barred.
Article found at Stockholm news.com Author David Jonasson 2009-12-17
“This is the prelude to the biggest legal scandal in Swedish legal history”, says Leif G W Persson, professor in criminology, to newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
30 confessed murders
Today it was announced that Svea Court of Appeal grants serial killer Thomas Quick, aged 59, an appeal in the case of a murder in 1988 on the Israeli tourist Yenon Levi.
Quick is sentenced to eight murders, but has told that he has murdered more than 30 people. Since 2008 he denies all the murders.
Svea Court of Appeal took into account the new facts and evidence that Quick has stated, the court writes. The Court of Appeal pointed out that there was no evidence to support that Quick could be bound to the crime in the murder case.
“It´s so wonderful. It is a relief and I am very satisfied and happy. This decision pushes the other convictions overboard”, says Sture Bergwall, as Thomas Quick now calls himself.
According to lawyer Thomas Olsson, a snowball has now been set in motion.
“More appeal applications are on their way”, he says to news agency TT.
Cravings for drugs made him confess
It was in a series of investigative television reports last autumn that Thomas Quick explained to journalist Hannes Rådstam how his own quest for attention, positive feedback from prosecutors and therapists, and the dependence on anti-anxiety drugs entrapped him in a lie about being a serial killer.
The more murders he confessed, the more attention he was given, and his therapist at the forensic psychiatry unit rewarded him by giving him highly addictive medicine.
But many doubted his guilt. Among else his own brother and many of the relatives to the victims. The information given by Quick about the murders was sometimes highly conflicting, far-fetched or openly wrong. This did however not stop six district courts from convicting him for eight murders.
There has neither been a shortage of people who believed that Quick is one of the worst serial killers ever known in northern Europe. Among them prosecutor Christer van der Kwast (now Director of the public prosecution authority), who worked with all criminal investigations and trials in which Thomas Quick was made responsible for the murders. Also a number of journalists are convinced that Quick, who earlier has been convicted for some sadistic acts of pedophilia, really are a serial killer.
Over the years the debate has become rather infected, but now it seems like those who do not think Quick is guilty of the murders, and that the whole thing is a legal scandal, may become heard.
A scandal
One of the harshest critics, Leif GW Persson, professor at the police academy in Stockholm, now believes that there will not be any new trials against Thomas Quick, since no prosecutor will be willing to take the case.
“I do not think this will go to trial for the simple reason that there will be no prosecutor who wants to pursue this. They will say that ´we have no claims on Quick´. In this situation, his defense counsel will request that he become acquitted, and so will then be done pro forma, and he gets a judgment of not guilty”, Persson says.
He describes what has happened as a huge scandal. He also want the judicial system to initiate an investigation of false or unwarranted prosecution, unless the earlier decision by the prosecutor is statute-barred.
Article found at Stockholm news.com Author David Jonasson 2009-12-17