Shot her best friend: Can't be punished because he was insane

A 74-year-old man was mentally ill when he was 11. march of last year killed his friend through 40 years, the former Left-politician Poul Erik Schwærter, 74, wi

Ann McDonald
Ann McDonald
11 January 2020 Saturday 18:00
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Shot her best friend: Can't be punished because he was insane

A 74-year-old man was mentally ill when he was 11. march of last year killed his friend through 40 years, the former Left-politician Poul Erik Schwærter, 74, with a shot of buckshot in the back.

It assesses the Retslægerådet, and therefore the offender is not punishable by imprisonment, because he was the insanity plea.

instead of resignation from the public prosecutor at Nordsjællands politi's claim that the 74-year-old is sentenced to placement in a psychiatric facility - and that it happens at an indefinite time.

the Trial starts on Tuesday at the Court in Elsinore and lasts for two days.

In grundlovsforhøret acknowledged the 74-year-old that he shot Poul Erik Schwærter, but he confessed to not killing - only violence resulting in death.

the public Prosecutor's office, however, accuses him of intentionally killing, and therefore the case must be carried out with the full evidence, without, however, nævninger. The defendants themselves have wanted the case decided by only a judge and two lay judges.

In grundlovsforhøret after the killing it emerged that the 74-year-old felt let down by the friend in connection with his problems with the Gribskov Municipality, on his property in Helsinge, which was contaminated, so it could not be sold.

'You've ruined my life,' said the 74-year-old, just before he shot the Poul Erik Schwærter on his farm Schwærtergården on Ravnebjergvej in Nellerød, Helsinge.

the first two police officers came to the scene of the crime, said the 74-year-olds:- It was either him or me!

Both family, friends and acquaintances had before the killing felt that the 74-year-old was mentally out of balance and almost paranoid, when he came with unreasonable accusations against Poul Erik Schwærter.

the 74-year-old bought his property in 2004, he was aware that there had originally been a nursery and a garage and that the reason was registered as contaminated in the Capital Region.

the Lake on the land was already in the 1955 planned as a detention pond, and since 1957, there has been an easement on the property, where the municipality can guide the rainwater out into the lake, when there is overflow on the sewage system.

Yet felt the 74-year-old that his friend had gone behind the back of him in the dispute about the pollution.

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A private lake in the backyard was contaminated by the municipality that let the waste water run into the lake, said the 74-year-old. Photo: Jonas Olufson

He believed that the combined sewage from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in the nearby reason, over the years, filled his private lake with feces, sanitary napkins and præservativer.

- My lake is actually dead. Before, there were herons, fish and dragonflies in the - and the dogs drank from the water. There was so much life. It is completely gone now, he has previously explained about the dispute in the local paper Ugeposten.

The former bricklayer was thought that Poul Erik Schwærter with his political connections could have helped him 'at a stroke'. Schwærter was in his time an ordinary councillor of the Left, and a member of the technical committee in the old Helsinge Municipality, but left the policy in 1998.

After several sleepless nights drove the 74-year-old out to Poul Erik Schwærter, and went up into the 74-year-olds bedroom:

- I would ask him if he could be familiar, as he had done against me. I woke him, and he just laughed mockingly, sounded his explanation in grundlovsforhøret.

When Poul Erik Schwærter sat up in the bed, charged the offender with his shotgun with one cartridge, but fumbled and lost the other.

- I press of approximately one and a half metres from him. I don't know where I hit him. I shoot one time, then I go my way, he explained in grundlovsforhøret.

He said to Poul Erik Schwærters wife, who stayed in a room by the side of, that he had shot at her husband: - I'll call the police.

Both the 74-year-old and the killed wife sounded the alarm almost at the same time. The 74-year-old sounded according to the police, very collected, as he said to the emergency: - I shot a man.

In grundlovsforhøret was the 74-year-old was asked by his counsel why he took his own shotgun to Poul Erik Schwærter.

- Perhaps to harm him. It could never occur to me to kill him. Not at all, said the 74-year-old.

Poul Erik Schwærter was surprised in his bedroom by the offender, who shot him in the back. Private

Updated: 11.01.2020 18:00