The circuit court finds a 42-year-old man guilty of the murder of a young man in Nuuk in 2024. He is sentenced to be placed in a psychiatric hospital in Denmark.
After four hard days in Sermersooq Circuit Court, the Magistrate’s Court is ready on Tuesday afternoon with its decision on the 42-year-old defendant in the Blok 5 case.
The circuit court finds it proven that the 42-year-old killed a 20-year-old man in Blok 5 in Nuuk in October 2024 by hitting him several times in the head, probably with a paving stone.
The now-convicted man then left his victim in a storage room, where the deceased was found on the morning of October 4, 2024. Since then, the murder has been one of the most talked about crimes in Greenland.
The defendant pleaded not guilty, but DNA traces and fingerprints deposited in blood residues at the storage room in Block 5 helped to convince the judge and the two magistrates of his guilt.
Was previously convicted of murder
The 42-year-old man has previously been convicted of an equally violent murder in Ilulissat in 2016, which led to a sentence of seven years in the institution.
This time it was different, as the man was sentenced to be placed in a psychiatric hospital in Denmark for an indefinite period. It was also the measure that deputy prosecutor Aprilia Jespersen argued for.
The man has been diagnosed with schizophrenia since his last murder conviction. He was already detained in surrogate custody at the hospital in Aarhus prior to the case in the circuit court, and now he is on his way back there.
But the last word has not been said in this case. The convicted man and his defender, Marie Louise Frederiksen, are appealing the circuit court verdict to the Greenland High Court.
The 42-year-old was also charged with violence against a woman in an unrelated case from 2024. However, he was acquitted of that charge after none of the summoned witnesses were able to provide any information.
