A man in his 40s is sentenced to life imprisonment after the double murder of the children in Södertälje. The Södertälje District Court announces this today.
“A unanimous district court finds it proven that the man intentionally killed his two children by suffocating them,” writes the district court.
In November this year, a man in his 40s was charged with a double murder in Södertälje. His two children, a boy and a girl under the age of ten, were found dead in a home in Södertälje in April earlier this year. In the preliminary investigation, it emerged that the defendant suffocated the children with the help of helium gas.
On Thursday, the Södertälje district court announced that the man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.
“A unanimous district court finds it proven that the man intentionally killed his two children by suffocating them. The suffocation took place with the help of helium,” the district court writes on its website.
The man will also be deported from Sweden.
“Special recklessness”
Furthermore, the district court notes that the acts were preceded by “careful planning” and carried out with “special recklessness”.
The man, who had previously been in custody on probable cause suspected of the murders, has confessed to the crimes. The mother of the children was also arrested and was initially also a suspect. However, she was released shortly afterwards and is no longer suspected of a crime.
Psychiatric examination
The father has undergone a psychiatric examination and the prosecutor in the case previously stated that “mental illness exists”. But according to the investigation, he is not seriously mentally ill, but the man’s lawyer demanded a reconsideration.
The incident caused great shock and concern in Södertälje. Hundreds of people gathered for a memorial service in All Saints Church in Södertälje two days after the murders.
The text is updated