The Copenhagen district court found the man guilty of three counts of manslaughter — having killed a 46-year-old man, a 17-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy — and 30 counts of attempted manslaughter.

The court also found that the man was “mentally ill” and was therefore acquitted from serving a jail sentence and was instead sentenced to a placement in the closed ward of a forensic psychiatry department. “No maximum time” was defined for the stay.

Arrested outside the Field’s shopping centre just after the shooting in early July last year, the man, who has a history of mental illness, has been remanded in a closed psychiatric ward awaiting his trial.

In the months following the shooting, a commission probing possible flaws in the shooter’s care concluded that, even if his care had been better, it is not certain his actions would have been prevented.

According to his lawyer, the young man has little memory of the day of the shooting, which is why he pleaded not guilty while not contesting the facts put forward by the prosecution.