Block 5 case: Defendant has previously been convicted of murder

NOTE: There are violent details from a murder case. The article should be read with caution.

On Monday morning, a 42-year-old man in a dark sweater sits in courtroom 3 in Sermersooq District Court. The prosecution believes that he is a murderer and wants him sentenced to psychiatric care in Denmark.

The defendant himself denies murdering the 20-year-old man who was found in a storage room in Block 5 in Nuuk on October 4, 2024.

The young man was killed by repeated blows with a blunt object, causing internal bleeding in the head. A paving stone was found in the area.

Deputy Prosecutor Aprilia Jespersen says that a fingerprint and DNA trace have led the police to the 42-year-old defendant. Before that, four other men were in the police's sights.

Bloody mattresses

The storage room next to the room where the deceased was found contained bloody mattresses and blood spatter, a number of photos show. In these blood spatters there are fingerprints from the 42-year-old man, the prosecutor says.

In addition, DNA traces from the defendant have been found, including on a door handle and on the deceased man's hands. A forensic geneticist has been called as a witness and will elaborate on this theme.

The police had the defendant's fingerprints and DNA information, as he has previously been convicted of murder, the prosecutor states.

Defendant's silence

The 42-year-old man denies guilt and has so far refused to make a statement. A defendant has the right to refuse to answer questions in court. It is still up to the prosecutor to prove that the person concerned has committed a crime.

However, the defendant has previously made a statement in a constitutional hearing.

He has confirmed that he has used and slept in a storage room in Block 5. He also said that he and others were down there on Friday, October 4, 2024, and noticed a person lying down and sleeping before they closed the door again. But he did not see any blood, he said at the time.

In addition to the murder case, the man is charged with hitting a woman in the head in Nuussuaq in July 2024. He also pleads not guilty.