Brother charged in Skåne teen girl stabbing

A 17-year-old boy in southern Sweden was charged on Wednesday with the murder of his 19-year-old sister, who died in April after being stabbed more than 100 times with two knives and a pair of scissors.

• Second suspect arrested in teen stabbing case (26 Apr 12)
• Boy, 16, suspected of stabbing sister to death (25 Apr 12)

Prosecutor Magnus Larsson told the gathered press at a meeting on Wednesday that the boy denies the allegations against him and claims that the girl sustained the injuries from a masked perpetrator. Police have so far not been able to come up with a motive for the brutal attack.

“In the press there have been speculations into some sort of honour motive,” said Larsson adding that police had found no evidence supporting that theory.

However, forensic evidence such as finger prints points to the brother being the killer. The young woman had been in touch with the social services in Landskrona, in Skåne county,for some time due to threats and violence from her family.

The 17-year-old brother continues to deny the allegations despite the evidence presented by the prosecutor and the fact that he had his sister’s blood on his clothes when he was arrested close to the scene of the crime. He claims he had been trying to protect her from her unknown attacker.

“There was another man present at the scene of the crime, I can say that much now,” said the 17-year-old’s defence lawyer Urban Jansson to news agency TT.

The girl had sought help from the Swedish authorities as early as 2009. The Swedish foreign ministry had been in contact with the social services after the girl had left a forced marriage abroad and was returning to her mother in Sweden.

However, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), the social services didn’t follow up on the young woman’s situation after she returned to Sweden. Neither did the agency look into the matter when the brother, now facing murder charges, arrived in Landskrona the following year.

However, the woman turned down offers of protected identity and an undisclosed address on several occasions. She was in foster care at the time she was murdered.

The boy was arrested on the day the murder was committed. At first their mother was also brought in but was soon released and the police no longer suspect her of being involved in the crime.

TT/The Local/rm
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