Defendant slept outside ex-wife’s home despite restraining order

A 63-year-old man charged with shooting his former wife dead repeatedly visited her home and slept in his car outside despite a restraining order, DR reported. His trial opened at Frederiksberg Court, where he is also charged with breaching the order and possessing a weapon.

The woman, who was 47, was shot dead in Brønshøj in June 2025. The defendant denies murder but admits firing his pistol. He told the court he had wanted to ask his former wife to return to him, or he would shoot himself.

He said he believed he had not shot his former wife but a “demon,” describing her appearance as changing and saying a snake came out of her mouth. He said he was frightened and fired once or twice, though police said their investigation found that ten shots were fired at the scene. The indictment says he shot her eight times in the head.

About 12 minutes after the shooting, he turned himself in at Bellahøj police station, near the scene.

The defendant is accused of breaching a restraining order four times in the year before the killing. In court, he said he had gone to her home every day, sometimes sleeping in his car there at 2 or 3am. He said he did not always make his presence known, but at other times knocked on her window.

Police found that he had called his former wife 807 times over 68 days in the year before the killing, despite her having blocked his number. The calls increased in the week before her death. According to police investigation material, he called her 136 times the day before the killing and 30 times on the day itself.

Police also reviewed searches on his phone. Among the searches were questions about whether voices heard by a person with schizophrenia could lead them to kill, whether a psychotic patient could return to normal, and the penalties for murder. Some searches could not be dated; two days before the killing, he searched for “Can a psychotic patient return to normal?” and whether voices heard by a person with schizophrenia could make them kill.

The defendant said he could not remember all the searches and had never thought about killing his former wife. A psychiatric assessment found that he was not mentally ill at the time of the shooting and was fit to receive an ordinary sentence. A verdict is expected in December.