The 36-year-old heard voices, stole a knife and went to Brunnsparken in Gothenburg.
Once there, he attacked an unknown ten-year-old girl and her grandmother.
– I wanted to be friends with this demon, he says in the interrogation.
The murder took place at lunchtime on March 2 in Brunnsparken in central Gothenburg.
A ten-year-old girl and her grandparents had planned a visit to the cinema and were waiting for the tram.
Then a man unknown to them grabbed the child with a knife.
“He kept chopping”
The knifeman began stabbing the girl in, among other things, the stomach, neck, back and chest.
– He continued to cut, says a witness about the dramatic seconds.
She suffered life-threatening injuries and was treated in hospital for almost a month. Her grandmother was slightly stabbed in the arms and hand when she tried to step in between.
The attack took place in front of many people, and several members of the public intervened and managed to wrestle the perpetrator down. Today, he, a 36-year-old, was charged at the Gothenburg District Court on suspicion of attempted murder and serious assault.
The 36-year-old and the victims have no connections to each other and the attack is being investigated as an act of insanity. In questioning, the suspect says:
– I remember that I had a lot of demons in my head and voices and feelings that wanted me to fill up the demons’ lives. It may sound a bit ridiculous but that’s exactly what I went through. These demons that I had inside me, that I felt I had and they were there
next to me, sometimes I could see, hallucinations, that there were demons or what it was, I don’t know.
Man: I had psychotic thoughts
The knifeman had earlier in the day been to the pharmacy and collected medicines. He says that he “took a whole jar” of 30 tablets.
– To get away from these thoughts and feelings and find myself
I thought.
Police: What are the thoughts and feelings you want to get away from?
– Befriending a demon. Like I can see in my bed, move, keep up with me and stuff like that.
– I felt so bad. I had so many bad feelings in me, psychotic thoughts, so I kind of wanted to take my life. But then I thought it’s not worth taking my life.
“I just hear a lot of voices”
The 36-year-old says he stole a knife set from Clas Ohlson and then took the tram to Brunnsparken.
The man has 25 episodes in the charge register. In personal investigations, it has emerged that he “has a mental problem” and that “a large part of the criminality is drug-related or linked to the mental illness.”
– So it’s disgusting. So I live in disgusting thoughts. I just hear a lot of voices around me… how they scream and stuff.
Why the ten-year-old girl was chosen has not been revealed.
The trial begins at the end of June, the defendant has neither been able to admit nor deny the crime.