Lisa Borch quote: “I heard my mother scream and I looked out the window and saw a white man running away. Please come here, there is blood everywhere.” (the murderess’s report to the police).
***
On 8 October 2014 in the Danish village of Kvissel,
40-year-old Tine Rømer Holtegaard was fatally stabbed – stabbed at least 20
times – in her sleep. On 14 September 2015, her 16-year-old daughter Lisa Borch
was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for her mother’s murder, and Borch’s
boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdullah, 29, was sentenced to 13 years in prison,
followed by deportation. The murder received international coverage, with
sources highlighting Borch’s viewing of videos of Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant executions immediately prior to the murder.
~ Background ~
Kvissel, which had a population of 412 in 2014, is a village
of Frederikshavn Municipality, the most northerly Danish municipality. Borch
lived there with her mother, her stepfather Jens Holtegaard, and a twin sister.
She had been in a relationship with an Islamic extremist, who ended it to
return to his family in Sweden. Following this, she met Abdullah, originally
from Iraq, at a nearby refugee centre. Jens Holtegaard stated that Borch was
“completely uncritically enthusiastic” about migrants and the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant. he feuded with her parents over her relationship with
Abdullah, leading her twin to leave home for a period. Lisa Borch showed a knife
to her sister and claimed that she would murder their mother, a threat which
was not taken seriously.
~ Attack and arrest ~
Tine Rømer Holtegaard was asleep, having taken sleeping
pills, when she was stabbed at least 20
times in the chest.
Borch, who according to computer records had been watching
ISIL execution videos including those of David Haines and Alan Henning,
contacted the police, claiming that her mother had screamed and she had seen a
“white man” running away from their home. She was indifferent when the police
informed her that her mother had been killed. Abdullah was not present when the
police arrived, but was arrested on the strength of forensic evidence.
~ Trial and conviction ~
Borch and Abdullah were tried in court in Hjørring. The prosecution
argued that the aggravating factors were the brutality of the murder’s planning
and execution, Rømer Holtegaard having taken sleeping pills, and the crime
having taken place in the victim’s home. They also claimed that the pair were
intending to fight in the Syrian Civil War. The defence said that Borch’s
sentence should be mitigated by her youth, and her being under the bad
influence of others. The court could not prove which of the pair carried out
the stabbing; both Borch and Abdullah were found guilty of murder. Borch’s
sentence was suggested by the prosecution, and was made possible because of a
2010 amendment to the law which scrapped a previous maximum eight-year sentence
for criminals under 18; she was ordered to serve the first year in juvenile
detention and the remaining eight in prison.
***
[Source of Lisa Borch quote: Allan Hall and John Hall,
“Blonde Danish teenager, 15, murdered her mother with a kitchen knife after
watching ISIS videos of the beheading of British hostages online,” Daily Mail,
No comments:
Post a Comment