Murdered boy of 16 in Koskela got inadequate support

The social services and schools failed to protect the 16-year-old boy, who was reportedly killed by three other boys of the same age on 4 December last year, found an investigation of the national broadcaster Yle.

Three 16-year-old boys allegedly killed the boy and dumped the body at an under-construction building in Koskela area of Helsinki.

The police framed murder charges against the three boys last week.

The police, after preliminary investigation, said the deceased was a victim of bullying for a long time by the three suspects, including three violent assaults that resulted in his death, said the Yle report.

The police termed the murder as sadistic, humiliating, and premeditated.

The role of social support networks in Finland is to identify problems faced by children and young people and to protect them in difficult situations, but an Yle investigation has revealed that the victim in this case was left without the necessary support.

The deceased lived in a children’s home in the last week of his life. When he failed to return to the accommodation on 4 December, there was no investigation into his whereabouts, despite the fact that the boy was considered to be conscientious and attentive, said the Yle investigation.

As the boy did not arrive at a scheduled meeting on the following morning, his parents requested for conducting a search but no search for him was carried out over the course of that weekend, reported the Yle.

A teacher of his school told the Yle that the victim’s difficulties were addressed too late and in some places remained unaddressed.

The Yle interviewed more than 20 people who knew the victim, the perpetrators of the crime or their close associates as well as examined their school and social environments.

The law-enforcers believe the murder took place in the evening of 4 December. Construction workers found the naked body in the under-construction building near Koskela Hospital in the morning of 7 December.

“Several marks of injuries were detected in different parts of the body of the victim, which we consider to be a brutal and cruel incident,” said Helsinki police Detective Inspector Marko Forss after the murder.

The police arrested the three suspects after getting a tip-off from a parent of one of them.

All the suspects left the scene immediately after the alleged killing, leaving the victim’s body there, said the inspector, adding that they might have been aware of the victim’s condition.

All the suspects, born in 2004, are Finnish by birth and they were celebrating the birthday of one of them, said the police, adding that they consumed alcohol during the celebration.