THE THREE 16-YEAR-OLD BOYS suspected of murdering a boy of the same age filmed themselves while assaulting and humiliating the victim, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
Marko Forss, the detective chief inspector in charge of the pre-trial investigation at Helsinki Police Department, on Monday told the newspaper that footage of the violence has been found on the mobile phones of the suspects.
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“We’re gradually getting to the bottom of this. There was indeed video of the incident,” he said.
Some of the events were also captured on security cameras.
The murder took place in a hospital area in Koskela, a northern neighbourhood of the Finnish capital, on 4 December. The victim was found at the scene of the homicide a couple of days later, lying down and stripped of some of his clothing.
The three suspects were detained on probable cause of the murder on 10 December.
Investigators at Helsinki Police Department have previously stated that the victim was assaulted for dozens of minutes in various places in the hospital area. “[The act involved] different methods, violence and humiliating acts, which have been determined through the police investigation,” told Forss.
Helsingin Sanomat also reported that the justification for detaining the suspects will be re-evaluated this week, roughly a week after one of them requested that he be released from pre-trial detention. Because the suspects are underage, also other forcible measures, such as travel bans, must be weighed up carefully.
“It’s rare for underage people to be detained for over two weeks,” Forss said to Helsingin Sanomat.
The investigators have yet to determine the motive for the act, with interrogations and other investigation techniques offering no indications of, for example, a disagreement on social media, jealousy or other reasons for the act. Similarly unknown is whether any other substances besides alcohol were linked to the act, a fact that is attributable to the time between the act and arrests.
What has been established, however, is that the acts were carried out systematically and collaboratively, although some of the suspects had a bigger and others a smaller role in the incident, according to Forss.
“It was mindless and sadistic violence,” he described.
Helsinki Police Department continue to ask anyone with knowledge of the incident to come forward.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
