Three teenagers were sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison today for torturing and beating to death a former classmate, a case that has caused outrage in Finland.
The three minors, aged 16 at the time of the crime, in December 2020, were found guilty of murder. In the months before the murder, they repeatedly harassed their victim.
According to the indictment, the victim, a 16-year-old boy, who lived in a shelter, was “sadistically” attacked for several hours and finally died on December 4, in a park in Koskela, in the northern suburbs. of Helsinki. Interior Minister Maria Ochisalo described the crime as “shocking”.
The three perpetrators, who knew their victim from the time they all went to kindergarten, pleaded not guilty. The death of the 16-year-old came from brain injuries and lung perforation due to fractures in the ribs.
The court ruled that the three acted together and caused more than 100 injuries to their victim’s body.
This case also brought to light the weaknesses of social structures for young people in Finland. The accommodation structure where the 16-year-old lived failed to look for him when he did not show up at the weekend after his beating. His body was found just Monday, three days after he was attacked.
According to official figures, almost one in two teenagers aged 14-16 living in an institution in Finland has been threatened or harassed.
