Lisa Borch has her appeal rejected as Denmark’s highest court rules she did kill her mother
SHE was just 15 years old when she stabbed her mother to death. But Lisa Borch’s path to darkness was an unlikely journey.
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TINA Rømer Holtegaard lay in her bed, defenceless and unaware of the danger that lurked nearby.
The Danish mother had just taken a sleeping pill. She must have thought she was safe. She wasn’t.
Elsewhere in the house, on October 8, 2014, her daughter Lisa Borch, then 15, and her Iraqi boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdullah, 29, crept into her room armed with a knife.
Police don’t know which one of them wielded the knife and inflicted the fatal blows on Mrs Holtegaard but both were convicted of her murder last year, the teenager being sentenced to nine years and Abdullah to 13 years.
She fought the sentence to Denmark’s highest court but this week her appeal was firmly rejected and a panel of judges ordered her to serve the sentence, reported The Independent.
Her appeal centred around her claims that she only confessed to the murder because she was scared of Abdullah, and didn’t stab her mother.
Naturally he blamed her — telling police he went to the house to “help her” after she had stabbed her mother.
When police arrived they found Lisa sitting in front of the computer, on her iPhone. When asked where her mother was, she simply pointed upstairs.
Mrs Holtegarrd was found covered in blood, with at least 20 stab wounds. The murder trial heard a frantic call Lisa made to police in which she claimed she saw a “white man” running from her home. She later changed her story several times.
It appears Lisa was radicalised after watching endless videos of British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning having their heads being brutally cut off. Evidence was tendered to court that she had watched the graphic videos.
Her stepfather Jens Holtegaard, 58, told Ekstra Bladet of her love of the Islamic State death cult. “She loves to talk about IS and their brutal behaviour in the Middle East,” he told the newspaper
A prosecutor was quoted by Danish news site The Local as saying the murder was “in cold blood, ice cold and committed in a bestial manner”.
She went on to say the couple devised the plan after Lisa became obsessed with militant Islam and dreamt of fleeing to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State. At one stage she showed a large knife to her twin sister and said she would use it for murder, however it was dismissed as a sick joke.
If only it was.
People around the world have been shocked by the case because young women are not heard of as often as males to carry out violent acts against loved ones.
There is no guarantee that will always be the case. In Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has already warned radicalised young girls were increasingly joining males along a deadly path.
Last year she said women accounted for a fifth of all foreign fighters and estimated that 30 to 40 Australian women and girls were either engaging in or supporting terrorist activity in Syria/Iraq and at home.
“There are a number of reasons for this deeply concerning development. One of the most pressing is Daesh’s exploitation of social media to radicalism and recruit online vulnerable young women,” Ms Bishop said.
It is this method police in Denmark believe set Lisa on a path to murder.
Ms Bishop said it “defied logic” young Australian women would want to support Islamic State.
“Daesh has published instructions for its followers on the treatment of sexual slaves which encourages raping and beating women,” she said.
“Young women who have joined Daesh are being exploited in the most appalling way — forced into abusive marriages, used as sexual slaves, and manipulated for propaganda and recruitment purposes.
“In some cases, they end their lives as suicide bombers. Some join an all-female militia known as the Al-Khansaa brigade which detains and punishes civilian women who do not follow Daesh’s medieval interpretation of Sharia law.”
Originally published as Lisa Borch has her appeal rejected as Denmark’s highest court rules she did kill her mother
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