Convicted serial killer applies for new retrials

Convicted serial killer Thomas Quick, who recently retracted confessions for eight murders, has formally petitioned the Svea Court of Appeal for a retrial in two further murder cases.

• Prosecutor drops serial killer case (29 Mar 11)
• Court orders retrial in new serial killer case (24 Sep 10)
• Convicted serial killer acquitted of murder (3 Sep 10)

Quick, who now goes by the name Sture Bergwall, has requested a retrial in the cases concerning the murder of Trine Jensen in Oslo in 1981 and Gry Storvik, also in Oslo, in 1985.

The cases are the third and fourth cases subject to a petition for a retrial following Thomas Quick's retraction of his confessions covering eight murders dating from 1976 to 1988.

Quick's lawyer Thomas Olsson has divulged in his petition to the court that they plan to submit new information to show that the confessions were false and that his client could not have carried out the murders.

Quick has previously explained that the confessions were made due to his psychological condition at the time and as result of the strong painkillers that he was taking at the time.

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 in June 1988.

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

The Local reported in March that a Swedish prosecutor has dropped the case against Thomas Quick related to the murder of nine-year-old Therese Johannessen in Norway in 1988, ruling that the conviction was not beyond reasonable doubt.

The Svea Court of Appeal had in September 2010 ordered a retrial in the case.

Quick remains convicted of the murders of Charles Zelmanovits in Piteå in 1976, Johan Asplund in Sundsvall in 1980, Trine Jensen in Oslo in 1981, a Dutch couple called Stegehuis in Appojaure in 1984, and Gry Storvik in Oslo in 1985.

Thomas Quick has been in psychiatric care since 1991.