Court sentences ‘cult leader’ to 3 years in prison for sexual offences, violent crimes
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Kanta-Häme District Court has handed down a prison sentence of 3 years and 4 months to a man convicted of a string of sexual offences and violent crimes.
The court began hearing the case on 7 November, but proceedings were mostly held behind closed doors due to the sensitive nature of the evidence.
The court said that the man was found guilty of 13 counts of sexual abuse, two assaults, as well as one charge of extortion.
The prosecutor had also called for him to be convicted on two counts of aggravated rape and six counts of rape, but these charges were dismissed.
Aside from the custodial sentence, the man was also ordered to pay 13,000 euros in compensation for the psychological damage the victims suffered as a result of the sexual offences. The victims were all adults.
The court also imposed additional compensation payments of 70,000 euros for lost earnings and 30,000 euros for suffering caused.
Extortion conviction relates to “cursed” heat pump
The defendant was also convicted of extortion, after the court heard that a plaintiff in the case had visited the man’s home with the intention of buying an air-to-air heat pump.
However, the pump broke down during the potential buyer’s visit, leading the defendant to accuse the visitor of “cursing” the device. He then demanded compensation, claiming the payment of compensation was the “will of God”.
Invoking his own authority as the leader of a purported religious organisation, described in court as a cult, the man further added that paying the compensation would stave off the Antichrist. He also threatened the buyer’s family.
The plaintiff eventually transferred about 10,000 euros to the defendant’s account, with the bank transfer labelled “payment for cursing the air-to-air heat pump”.
The defendant later repaid this money to the plaintiff.
Friday’s verdict by the Kanta-Häme District Court is not yet legally binding, and therefore may be appealed to a higher court.
Previous conviction for abducting own children
Earlier this year, the man and his wife were found guilty by the same court of kidnapping their own children from a playground in the town of Ulvila, southwest Finland, in July 2024.
The three children had been living in social care facilities outside the family home for a long period of time due to concerns over their welfare.
The children were first taken to Sweden, and then to Norway, from where they were extradited back to Finland later that summer.
At the time, Finnish media reported that the couple had been at the centre of a string of criminal investigations over the prior 12 months, including the case that led to Friday’s verdict.
Content retrieved from: https://yle.fi/a/74-20199475.
