Attention-seeking serial confessor gets new acquittal

A convicted serial killer has been acquitted of murdering a nine year-old Norwegian girl, as he continues his campaign to prove his numerous previous confessions were merely drug-induced, attention-seeking ramblings.

Swede Sture Bergwall – formerly known as Thomas Quick – was granted a retrial in March relating to the 1988 killing of Therese Johannesen. The case was, however, dropped altogether last week due to a lack of evidence; Johannesen’s body was never recovered. Bergwall’s conviction for the murder of Israeli tourist, Yenon Levi, was also overturned last September following a retrial.

The Swede, who was once considered to be the most dangerous man in Scandinavia, confessed to around 30 murders in Sweden, Finland and Norway between 1976 and 1988, and is currently serving a life sentence in a psychiatric hospital. At the time, he claimed to have eaten parts of some of the victims’ bodies, in what were described as “especially gruesome” killings.

In 2008, however, Bergwall withdrew all his confessions, claiming he had been on heavy medication at the time and was simply craving attention. Many of his convictions have subsequently been questioned, especially as there was no evidence of the Swede’s involvement, other than his confessions, in nearly all of the cases.