The prosecution went to the high court with a request for tougher measures for a mentally ill perpetrator who is known to be guilty of violently assaulting a woman in Qaqortoq. However, the High Court would not change his sentence from the circuit court.
Greenland’s High Court on 27 May decided the case of a young man who was found guilty of attempted murder and rape in a relationship other than sexual intercourse. The crimes took place on the same morning against a woman, on 17 April 2025 in Qaqortoq.
In the High Court, however, it was only the question of measure that was up for discussion, not the question of guilt.
The Kujalleq Circuit Court had sentenced the 24-year-old man to treatment in a Danish psychiatric hospital. The prosecutor wanted the sentence to be increased to a conviction and had therefore appealed the case. However, the high court agreed with the district court that a processing judgment was the right decision.
Convicted of attacking a woman with a knife
The young man is convicted of attacking the woman with a knife, strangling her and subjecting her to a violation that is considered rape in a relationship other than sexual intercourse. He has also been convicted of attempted sexual intercourse.
The man told the circuit court that he did not remember the morning in question in Qaqortoq, when he was extremely drunk.
The doctors have concluded that the man suffers from schizophrenia with obvious delusions. He has probably been insane for a number of years and thus also at the time of the crime in 2025.
The man himself has said that there are various spirit beings with whom he is in telepathic contact, and his task was to work against the bad spirits.
Extenuating circumstances
During the trial by the high court, the young man added that the treatment at Aarhus University Hospital has gone well. Today he is well medicated, calm and does not belong so much to spirits anymore, he said.
In its decision, the High Court took into account the fact that the man had not been convicted of a crime prior to the current sentence. The fact that the crimes occurred at a time when his mental illness was undiagnosed and untreated also argued against a harsher sentence.
The young man’s treatment sentence does not have a maximum term. It therefore depends on the psychiatrist’s assessment when he can become a free man again.
