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THOMAS QUICK

Court orders retrial in new serial killer case

The Swedish appeals court on Friday overturned a decision to convict serial killer Thomas Quick for the murder of nine-year-old Therese Johannessen in Norway in 1988.

Published: 24 September 2010 12:40 CEST
Court orders retrial in new serial killer case

The Svea court of Appeal ordered a retrial in the case after Quick, who now goes by the name of Sture Bergwall, retracted his confession.

Supporting evidence, in the form of witness testimony or forensic evidence was completely absent from the body of evidence use to convict him, the court oberved, ruling that the conviction was not beyond reasonable doubt.

The case will now taken up again by Falu District Court after the court appeal ruled that it should take into account the changed circumstances.

“Wonderful,” wrote Quick on his Twitter page when the court’s decision was announced. “The appeal court decision to acquit came like a bolt of lightning.”

Quick praised his lawyers who he said were “incredibly surprised”.

Thomas Quick has been convicted in six trials for the murder of eight people.

In 2008 he retracted all his confessions for the crimes and applied for his first re-trial. In 2009 the Svea court of appeal granted Quick a new trial for the murder of Yenon Levi in Hedemora in central Sweden southwest of Gävle in June 1988.

Quick was acquitted of Levi’s murder in September 2010.

His next application will concern the murder of Trine Jensen and Gry Storvik in 1985.

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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.

Published: 20 December 2013 18:23 CET
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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