Oulu ex-police officer gets suspended sentence for assault and other crimes

A former Oulu police officer has received a 10-month suspended sentence for assault and several other offences, Yle reports.

The assault took place in an apartment in Oulu in April 2024, when the man was still working as a senior constable for the Oulu Police Department. He was off duty. According to the Oulu District Court, he entered the apartment with a woman whose identity is unknown, and the two assaulted a resident together. The victim was hit with a vinyl pipe and an aluminium baseball bat.

The court also convicted the man of breach of official duty, two drug-use offences, a drug offence, two counts of driving while intoxicated and a minor firearms offence. The breach of duty involved looking up information about a vehicle and checking for police assignments linked to an address while he was on sick leave. He had no work-related reason to access the information.

The Oulu Police Department dismissed him in May 2024 because of the criminal suspicions. Some of the offences, including the drug offence, took place after his dismissal. The court rejected two other assault charges against him.

The man was ordered to pay the assault victim 1,100 euros for pain, suffering and other temporary harm.

Three other people were charged in the case. Two were convicted of offences against the former officer. A woman who, according to the judgment, assaulted him with a knife received a one-year-and-seven-month suspended sentence for aggravated assault and other lesser offences.

The District Court’s judgment is not final and can be appealed.