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CRIME

Danish parish priest jailed for murdering wife and dissolving body in acid

A Danish parish priest been jailed for 15 years for murdering his wife by striking her on the back of her head with a stone and then dissolving her body in acid.

Danish parish priest jailed for murdering wife and dissolving body in acid
Until last month Thomas Gotthard maintained his innocence. Photo: Nordsjællands Politi/Ritzau Scanpix

“I killed Maria. I ended her life, she did not deserve that fate,” Gotthard said at the end of his trial on Tuesday. “I am guilty of having lied and deceived you all. I’ve been a total thug. I have sent my life out into the darkness where I want to stay. No one should feel sorry for me.” 

In a closed-door hearing, Thomas Gotthard had that morning told the court how he had planned the murder of 43-year-old Maria From Jakobsen and how, once she was unconscious, he had smothered her nose and mouth with his hands for several minutes until she was dead.

He said he had decided to murder her because of problems in his marriage and his fear that a divorce would have caused problems with his children and his existing ex-wife. He had also started a relationship with another woman who has was “wildly in love with”. 

“It’s terrible to say, but it became a sort of hobby for him,” said Prosecutor Anne-Mette Seerup as she read out the explanation Gotthard had given in court. “This is not an unhappy love story about a man who could not get the love of his life. Or the third love of his life. On the contrary, this is a man who saw his wife as a block and chain around his leg.” 

Influenced by an episode of Breaking Bad he had seen, Gotthard decided to dissolve the body in acid, buying a 208-litre feed barrel for the purpose.

After keeping the body in a locked shed in the barrel for one night, then moved it to an abandoned country estate, where he drenched the body in 45 liters of hydrochloric acid and more than six kilograms of caustic soda, hoping to dissolve the corpse.

The barrel was too heavy to move, however, so he split the contents into two smaller barrels, which he then buried, only to dig them up again, cut the remaining parts of the body into smaller pieces, burn them, then bury the remaining bones. 

READ ALSO: Danish Lutheran priest expected to confess to murdering wife

Jakobsen disappeared on the morning of October 26 last year and was reported missing by her sister the next day. Gotthard then told police last year that she had left the couple’s house in a depressed state, leaving her phone and bank cards behind.

But he was taken into custody three weeks later after police found caustic soda and hydrochloric acid in the couple’s house, and discovered that he had searched for terms like “sea depth,” “oil barrels,” “suicide,” “disappeared” and “cleaning” on the family computer.

Once he was in police custody, Jakobsen was suspended from his position as a parish priest.

Police also discovered that Gotthard had cleaned his car on October 26th, the day of his wife’s disappearance, and found CCTV footage showing him disposing of a big blue plastic barrel at the recycling centre in Frederikssund on November 6th.

On April 27 this year, he was charged with murder and for disposing of the body that had not yet been found.

On June 3rd, Gotthard led the police to the place where he had buried his wife’s bones, with the remains later confirmed to be hers through DNA analysis. 

In his summation of the case, the prosecutors called for Gotthard to receive the maximum 15-year sentence, while the defender has called for 13 years. 

“The only thing he regrets is that he was caught,” Seerup said, arguing that Gotthard had only led police to the place where he buried the body because he knew they were already searching in the vicinity. “The police were right on his heels. They had discovered the connection to Sundbylille.”  

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CRIME

‘More Danes than ever’ victims of digital crime

Almost 190,000 people in Denmark were the victims of IT-related crime in 2023, according to new figures.

'More Danes than ever' victims of digital crime

The number, released by the Danish Crime Prevention Council (Det Kriminalpræventive Råd) represents a significant increase on the previous year’s figure of 150,000.

Denmark’s justice ministry, national police and the University of Copenhagen all work with the Crime Prevention Council in an annual study which tracks the figure through contact with victims.

It represents a trend which is unlikely to slow down in coming years, according to the Council’s director Erik Christensen.

“Technological advances mean that there are more and more doors through which the criminals can walk in relation to scamming us normal members of the public,” he told newswire Ritzau.

The emergence of AI could make it even more likely that people become subjected to digital fraud attempts, he said.

The study found that online payments and abuse of payment information were most common types of fraud defined as IT-related.

But “contact fraud”, in which scammers contact targets by email, telephone or online, is also on the rise.

The figure for that specific type of crime went from 13,000 in 2022 to 47,000 last year.

READ ALSO: Danish courts issue warning over SMS scam

“Our best advice is that if each of us takes good time when we get an email or SMS… and check whether it is [actually] from the Tax Agency, municipality or bank,” Christensen said.

He also advised asking a family member or trusted person for a second opinion before answering any email or SMS, if in doubt.

In the most common type of IT crime – online transactions – some 85,000 people in Denmark last year lost money to scams such as fake web shops or trades with private individuals.

Another form – which hit 64,000 people – involves purchase of a fake or counterfeit item.

Some 76,000 people were victims of having their bank card details stolen and misused, some 19,000 more than in 2022.

“We must move away from shaming people who get scammed because anyone can fall victim to it. Even when you look at these numbers, we know there are also unreported cases,” Christensen said.

The Council director stressed the importance of victims of online fraud not feeling shame over what had happened.

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