Janne Samuel Aikala (17 October 1975 in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

– 14 May 1986 in Turku) was a 10-year-old boy, who was killed by

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

keeper Jorma Patjas in May 1986. This is notable because of the Supreme Court review and the legal concept of murder and manslaughter in Finland was an issue.

The day of the murder

On Wednesday, 14 May 1986, Janne Aikala had left his home for his

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

lesson a little earlier than usual, in order to stop at the local antiquarian in the city centre on his way. The piano lesson was supposed to begin at 4 PM. Janne never got there. Janne's parents reported their son as missing. Because he was a small boy, the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

took the report very seriously. The search was aided by the coast guard

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s and

infrared camera Infrared thermography (IRT), thermal video or thermal imaging, is a process where a thermal camera captures and creates an image of an object by using infrared radiation emitted from the object in a process, which are examples of infrared im ...

s, but in vain.

Discovery of the body

On Saturday 17 May at 9:45 PM, a couple riding their

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

s found Janne's body 20 km away from the centre of Turku by the Turku-

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

highway. The police investigation found that Janne had been killed by

strangling Strangling or strangulation is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain by restricting the flow of oxygen through the trachea. Fatal strangulation typically occur ...

, and not by accident as was originally suspected. The 41-year-old antiquarian keeper Jorma Patjas was brought in for questioning, because Janne was presumed to have last been alive in his shop. During the

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

, Patjas confessed to having killed Janne, claiming he had killed him by accident. Patjas told the police he had consumed a lot of

alcoholic beverage Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...

s on the evening before the day of the murder and on the morning of the day of the murder.

Course of events

Having arrived to the antiquarian, Janne had gone to the back room of the shop, where there were

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibrating. The ...

s kept behind curtains, and according to Patjas's report, these were not suitable for the eyes of a small boy. Janne had ignored Patjas's warnings, causing Patjas to become nervous. Patjas started to assault Janne by holding him by the back of his neck and banging his head against the wall, causing him to lose consciousness. Patjas became scared, thinking he had killed Janne, and went to close the door of his shop and put a notice saying "Just a minute" at the window to keep customers away. After this, Patjas bound Janne's arms and legs, gagged him, and brought him to the back room. Having done this, Patjas went back to his apartment to drink more alcohol, leaving Janne bound in the back room of his antiquarian. In the evening, Patjas went back to his shop to free Janne. Patjas tried to calm the panicked Janne down by offering him

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

to drink. Patjas managed to get Janne to agree not to tell anyone of what had happened. Janne soon threatened Patjas by saying "I will tell everything to the police anyway and you'll go to

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

." This caused Patjas to lose his temper, and he strangled Janne to the death with a piece of

rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

. Immediately after having done this, Patjas hid the body in a cardboard box and took it to the back of his room. After this, he went to his apartment to sleep. The next morning, on Thursday, Patjas opened his shop as normal. In the evening, after closing his shop, Patjas moved the cardboard box and the body to the back of his

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

and sought a quiet spot where he could abandon the body. Patjas threw the body out of the cardboard box to a ditch near the highway and drove back to his home. Patjas had left the cardboard box and the notation sheet Janne had had with him to the garbage pail by his apartment.

Verdict

Jorma Patjas was sentenced in court in January 1987 for assault, kidnapping and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

and to pay a sum of 21,500 Finnish markkas to Janne's family as compensation. The court decision of murder was influenced by the fact that the victim had been a defenseless child, and the victim had been assaulted and kept bound before the killing. The Turku district court judged the case as

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

in July 1987, because it felt that Patjas had not acted out of premeditation when killing Janne. However, the district court also took note of the fact that the victim had been a defenseless child, and gave a severe sentence of 12 years and 1 month in prison. In July 1988, the supreme court judged the case as murder and sentenced Patjas to lifetime in prison.

References

Sources

* Hannes Markkula: Suomalainen murha 1953–1990 * Pohjolan pollisi kertoo 1988 (article: Jannen tapaus)
Supreme court decision on 5 July 1988

External links

Supreme court decision on 5 July 1988
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aikala, Janne 1986 deaths People from Turku Child murder in Finland People murdered in Finland May 1986 in Europe 1986 murders in Finland Incidents of violence against boys Violence against men in Europe