Dad confesses to murder of 7-year-old son (Umea, Sweden)

UNNAMED DAD, little detail. No mention of mother.

http://www.thelocal.se/34886/20110712/

Father remanded into custody over son's death


The 53-year-old man suspected of murdering his 7-year-old son in Umeå in northern Sweden on Sunday has been remanded into custody.

The man has admitted to cause the death of his child and according to details published by the Aftonbladet newspaper he has confessed to aggravated assault and manslaughter.

The 53-year-old is set to undergo a so-called paragraph 7 examination to assess his psychiatric health, according to the remand decision announced by Umeå district court on Tuesday.

The court ruled that the man should be remanded into custody until August 12th at which point the prosecutor can press charges, request an extension, or release the man.

The hearing was held behind closed doors.

Police were alerted to the fatal incident after a neighbour made a call at around 8am on Sunday morning.

On arriving at the apartment, police officers found the severely wounded boy. He was taken to the hospital, but later died of his injuries.

According to criminologist Mikael Rying, an average of three children younger than 15 are subjected to deadly violence every year.

This figure has been more than halved since the 1990s, when 10-12 cases were reported per year. However, the figure can also vary greatly from year to year.

"When children are this badly hurt, one of the parents is the perpetrator in 80-90 percent of the cases. The crime is committed in their apartment, and the motive is rarely directed at the child. Instead, mental illness or custody cases can lie behind the violence," said Rying.

The most common group of children to fall victim are the very young, around one-years-old.

"But the sort of case found in Umeå is thankfully very uncommon. Weapons are rarely involved in cases with young children," said Rying.