A British cyclist is facing ten years in jail for axing a 75-year-old man to death in Finland, claiming he acted in self defence after the pensioner tied him down and raped him.
The 32-year-old man admitted to striking the male victim, aged 75, with an axe in a flat in Seinajoki, western Finland, in July last year, Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reports.
The victim was hit with an axe six times while lying in his bed, according to the prosecutor.
The Briton reportedly claims that he killed the victim in self-defense after he was tied up and raped.
The two men had met at a spa in Kauhava on July 27, a day after the man in his 30s arrived in Finland for a cycling tour. They then spent the night in a hotel room paid for by the pensioner.
On July 28, the 75-year-old was captured on CCTV with the man as he bought him a new phone before taking him to his home in Seinajoki, where the younger man did some gardening work for him, according to reports.
Investigators believe the pensioner was killed between midnight and 2.14am on July 29.
The British man allegedly fled the scene in the victim’s car, which was found in a ditch outside Kyyjarvi – about a 90-minute drive from the victim’s home – just hours later.
He blamed the accident on a deer that ‘appeared out of nowhere’, according to a Whatsapp message sent to his friend just before 6am on July 29.
‘If the cops had come, I would have been screwed,’ he added about leaving the car behind.
The pensioner’s body was only found two weeks later, on August 14, after his concerned relatives called the police for a welfare check.
Police identified the British man as a suspect, first believing he had left Finland before locating him in a flat in eastern Finland on August 17.
He told investigators that the pensioner ‘made it clear that I owed him a favor when he helped me with the phone’, claiming that the man referred to sexual services.
The man refused and took a nap at the man’s home. ‘When I woke up, I was tied up with bandages. I couldn’t move properly,’ he told South Ostrobothnia District Court, where his trial is being held.
He claims that the pensioner raped him. ‘The ordeal was horrible. When it was over, he rolled over next to me. Then he started snoring and I decided to escape. I went to the kitchen and cut my ties there,’ he said.
The pensioner allegedly followed him and stood in the door with an axe, telling the Briton that no one would believe him if he called the police.
‘The man had an axe in his hand, and I had no choice but to defend myself. It was either him or me,’ he told the court.
He said he got hold of the axe and struck his victim twice.
‘The first blow was when I intended to hit him, but not to kill him. I slipped and the axe slipped from my hand,’ he told police.
The second blow was then allegedly caused by the axe accidentally slipping from his hand. The man said he panicked and fled the scene in the victim’s car.
An axe was found in the victim’s apartment, but only the pensioner’s DNA was found on it, local media report.
A different axe could be seen attached to the frame of the man’s bike in photos taken by a local on July 27. The second axe has reportedly not been found.
The Briton said he used the victim’s axe to kill him, although he gave different versions of where he disposed of it and police have been unable to locate the weapon. He denied bringing an axe on his cycling trip.
In the weeks following the killing, the 32-year-old is said to have searched online for information about the crime – before the pensioner’s body had even been found.
The victim’s daughter reportedly told the court that she could not imagine that her father would have been capable of the acts described by the Briton due to his health.
Prosecutors have demanded a 10-year prison sentence for the man.
The court has ordered a mental health examination for the accused, after which the trial is set to resume.
The man told police that he toured around Europe to fundraise money for British charities and was in Finland to work at a friend’s husky farm.
