Strange tips, major shortcomings in the work of the police and prosecutors and a high media pressure to solve the case. According to Leif GW Persson, it contributed to creating what he calls one of the biggest legal scandals of modern times in Sweden.
– They did everything wrong from the beginning, he says of the investigation into the murder of Catrine da Costa.
Teet Härm and Thomas Allgén have been forced to live with the consequences of being singled out as guilty of having murdered Catrine da Costa in the eighties.
Since they were both acquitted in court, it is not possible to appeal, but GW, who sees the state as ultimately responsible for what happened, thinks that the government should now act and that Teet Härm and Thomas Allgén should receive an apology and compensation. He points out that it is possible to do as in the case of Kevin, where Arvika municipality apologized to the brothers accused of murder.
– It would really be high time you did the right thing. This is an abuse of rights that has ruined the lives of two people.
Testimony can change everything
A central part of the prosecutor’s indictment comes from Thomas Allgén’s ex-wife’s stories that their common two-year-old daughter witnessed a murder when she was visiting the father.
The child had spent a number of hours alone with Thomas Allgén on Pentecost 9 June 1984 – and it was on this occasion that the prosecutor suspected that the murder had taken place.
But in the police’s murder investigation there is information from a man who claims he had contact with Catrine da Costa after the Pentecost weekend.
– I have spoken to her, I think it was twice after my birthday on the tenth of June, says the witness in a recorded conversation.
“After that date?” asks the police and the man assures several times that he is absolutely sure of his case.
Leif GW Persson believes that this testimony in itself means that the prosecutor’s theory falls.
– Then the whole crime description collapses, he says in Aktuellt.
View all available sections of the review Documents from the inside: The Swedish assassination on SVT Play.