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CRIME

Man found dead in cell was accused of attempted sexual assault on 14-year-old: report

A man suspected of assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Denmark has been found dead in his prison cell, a local media has reported.

Published: 12 January 2018 16:01 CET
Man found dead in cell was accused of attempted sexual assault on 14-year-old: report
File photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix Denmark

The man was found dead at a custodial facility in the southern town of Kolding on Friday morning.

Michael Weiss, Chief Superintendent with South East Jutland Police, confirmed the death to newspaper Randers Amtsavis.

According to the newspaper, the man in question is 37 years old and was remanded in custody on Thursday on suspicion of repeated attempted sexual assaults and other offences of a sexual nature relating to a girl under the legal age of consent.

Police did not however confirm that information.

“I will not comment on who the person in question is or what happened specifically. But we are investigating the case,” Weiss told Randers Amtsavis.

The 37-year-old was charged during preliminary hearings on Thursday with several cases of attempted rape of the girl, according to the newspaper.

He denied the charges and his preliminary detention was extended by four weeks. That detention was appealed to a higher court, according to the report.

CRIME

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs hiring ‘child soldiers’

The justice ministers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are to meet representatives of the tech giants Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, to discuss how to stop their platforms being used by gang criminals in the region.

Published: 20 September 2024 10:37 CEST
Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs hiring 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.  

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.   

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country. 

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups. 

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region. 

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