Danish court upholds 12-year prison sentence for rape and murder of 13-year-old

A 20-year-old man convicted of raping and murdering his 13-year-old ex-girlfriend in northern Denmark will serve 12 years in prison, after an appeals court rejected prosecutors’ calls for indefinite detention.

The Western High Court (Vestre Landsret) on Tuesday upheld the sentence handed down by Hjørring District Court in July 2023, following the killing in Hjallerup in March 2024, DR reports.

Prosecutors had sought forvaring—a Danish form of indeterminate detention for offenders deemed particularly dangerous—rather than a fixed-term prison sentence. However, the six-member judicial panel was evenly split, with three voting for detention and three for imprisonment. Under Danish law, a tie results in the outcome most favourable to the defendant.

The case involved the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl by her 20-year-old former partner.