Mads and Magnus Møller are now known guilty of manslaughter under section 237 of the Criminal Code
On Tuesday morning, two brothers are found guilty of murdering Phillip Johansen after violent abuse in a forest on Bornholm.
The 28-year-old Danish-Tanzanian was found lifeless with extensive injuries after blows with rafters and fists, stabs with a knife and kick and tramp and burns over large parts of the body early in the morning on Tuesday 23 June this year at a campfire hut in the forest north of Rønne.
It was a random passer-by who found Philip Johansen’s mutilated body in the woods.
Admits death violence
The presiding judge says that this is a unanimous ruling.
They assess that this is a joint murder. The court emphasizes that both defendants over a long period of time of not less than 15 to 20 minutes have exposed the victim to extremely powerful, diverse and brutal violence.
The two men, aged 23 and 26, have pleaded guilty to death but plead not guilty to murder.
The court emphasizes that the defendants took breaks during the violence against Phillip Johansen several times when the victim appeared unconscious, and that the defendants resumed the violence when he regained consciousness. Also when the brothers brought him to consciousness with kicks.
Left helpless
Mads and Magnus Møller, according to the three judges and all jurors, left Phillip Johansen in a helpless condition by the campfire hut. They did so after burning the 28-year-old man’s mobile phone and footwear.
The brothers now convicted must therefore, in the court’s opinion, have assumed that the severely injured Phillip Johansen would only be found during the following day.
They should therefore have realized it as ‘overwhelmingly probable’ that Phillip Johansen would die as a result of the massive injuries he sustained during the extensive mistreatment.
Mental statements
According to chief prosecutor Bente Pedersen Lund, Philip Johansen was brutally murdered. She considers that it was a planned crime and believes on that basis that the brothers should be sentenced to the most severe staff – that is, 14 to 16 years in prison
The Chief Prosecutor has reviewed mental statements of both brothers.
Mads Møller is not insane and was not at the time of the crime. He has both the diagnoses autism and adhd, but has completed an agricultural education, it is pointed out.
No other measures that are more appropriate than ordinary punishment can be pointed out, according to the psychiatric assessment.
About Magnus Møller, the mental statement concludes that he was not insane at the time of the crime either. Like his brother, he was heavily intoxicated when the assault in the woods unfolded. He has Asperger’s syndrome, and suffers as the brother of the disorder adhd.
