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THOMAS QUICK

Swedish serial killer granted new trial

Convicted Swedish serial murderer Thomas Quick has been granted a new trial for the 1988 killing of a tourist in Dalarna in central Sweden after he recanted his confessions to several killings.

Swedish serial killer granted new trial

Quick has been convicted in six different trials for the murders of eight people. During police questioning, he has confessed to committing more than 20 murders, which he claims he committed in Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

But in several programmes broadcast last year by Sveriges Television (SVT) journalist Hannes Råstam, Quick has taken back all of his previous confessions.

In April, his lawyers filed a formal request with the Svea Court of Appeal seeking a new trial for a case involving the murder of 24-year-old Yenon Levi, an Israeli tourist who was found dead near the side of a deserted forest road in Dalarna in 1988.

In documents accompanying the petition, Quick’s lawyer Thomas Olsson argued that a number of mistakes took place during the police investigation of Levi’s murder.

“The conviction is based on a confession from a mentally ill and drugged person. In addition, relevant investigative material was withheld from the court,” Olsson told the TT news agency when he filed the petition, which also included the name of another possible culprit in Levi’s killing.

There was also information from witnesses that the alternative assailant, who is said to have strong anti-Semitic views, was connected to Levi.

The appeals court said that the new evidence presented by Quick creates doubts about whether he is indeed guilty of the crime for which he has been convicted.

The court went on to say that there are sufficient grounds to try the case once again in order to revisit the question of Quick’s responsibility for the crime and thus granted a retrial.

Quick, who has since changed his name to Sture Bergwall, has been indicated that he will petition for retrials for each of the eight murders for which he’s been convicted.

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ITALY

French police snare ‘Valentine’s Day Monster’

An Italian serial killer nicknamed the "Valentine's Day monster", whose escape from prison in Genoa this week triggered a huge manhunt, was caught Friday on the French Riviera, police said.

French police snare 'Valentine's Day Monster'
French police snared an Italian serial kiler on Friday on the Riviera coast. Photo: AFP

Bartolomeo Gagliano went on a murder spree in the 1980s, killing two prostitutes and a transvestite and seriously injuring another sex worker, for which he served years in a criminal psychiatric ward.

At the time of his escape on Wednesday, he had been serving time in prison in the northwestern Italian town of Genoa for a hold-up.

French police said he was detained on Friday afternoon in the southeastern French city of Menton after Italian authorities launched a manhunt for a man they described as "very dangerous" and "possibly armed".

Gagliano was spotted in Ventimiglia, an Italian border town, and fled on the motorway to France in a stolen vehicle.

Police found the parked car in Menton, and detained him as he was heading back to the vehicle.

Gagliano escaped while on temporary leave from prison to visit his mother – leave he had been granted for good behaviour. 

Italian media gave him the nickname of "Valentine's Day monster" because he killed the transvestite on the day that celebrates love.

According to Italy's ANSA news agency, Gagliano had also been convicted for robbery, drugs and weapons possession, aggression and extortion.

He had already escaped from a psychiatric hospital in northern Italy in 1990, and a month later shot his girlfriend in the chin and fled the scene, the agency said.

She was found lying nude on a bed, with underwear at her neck to try to stop the bleeding, surrounded by pornographic material, it added. Gagliano later returned to the hospital.

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