Brno, June 1 (CTK) – U.S. citizen Kevin Dahlgren, 23, charged with a quadruple murder of his relatives in the Czech Republic, testified in the Regional Court in Brno for the first time, commenting on a psychiatrist’s opinion on Wednesday, on the second day of his trial.
Dahlgren pleaded not guilty in the past. The court also read his previous testimony for FBI in which he said he found his relatives dead, got scared and ran away.
Dahlgren is charged with having killed his cousin, her husband and their two sons, one of them underage, with knives and an axe, in their house in Brno, where he worked as an English teacher, in May 2013. The motive of the murders is unknown.
Psychiatrist Milena Zimulova said Dahlgren considered the event from May 22, 2013 “a specter,” but that during the investigation, he told her the event helped him find himself and had a positive influence on a change in his personality.
Dahlgren also told her about “an inner voice” inciting him to kill the family in the night to May 22, she said.
According to her, Dahlgren faced a pressure caused by his failing.
Dahlgren asked Zimulova in court how and why he was failing. He also said the psychiatrist did not sufficiently comment on “the inner voice” that accompanied him for two years, each 10-15 minutes.
Zimulova previously said Dahlgren did not suffer from any serious mental disorder, such as psychosis, at the time of the murders.
“He suffers from a personality disorder mixed type,” Zimolova said. However, this does not mean that Dahlgren could not control his behaviour at the time of the murders, she added.
His public defender Richard Spisek pointed to the results of U.S. doctors concluding that Dahlgren is not mentally healthy and suffers from schizoaffective disorder mixed type.
On Tuesday, Dahlgren refused to testify in court.
On Wednesday, the judge read the protocol from his questioning by FBI. Dahlgren said in it he left Brno for fear of his safety since he had a conflict with Russians and Romanians previously.
On May 22, 2013 he returned from jogging in a forest around noon and found the dead bodies in the house, along with a message addressed to him reading: “We will find you if you are in Europe,” Dahlgren told FBI, adding that he thought the threats came from Russians or Romanians he met in the night.
The court yesterday also read an opinion by sexologist Jaroslav Zverina. He did not find sadism symptoms in Dahlgren, but he revealed his interest in sexually aggressive and sadomasochistic topics.
Moreover, the judge read testimonies of other neighbours and friends of the victims.
State attorney Ludmila Dolezalova said on Tuesday Dahlren committed the murders as a consequence of his personality features, emotional instability and aggression in combination with situation factors.
After the murder, Dahlgren left for the United States. The Czech authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, based on which he was detained by FBI on his arrival in Washington. He was in custody in the United States from May 2013. His extradition was approved last August.
Dahlgren, who has been the first U.S. citizen extradited to the Czech Republic, has been in pre-trial custody in Brno since last summer. He faces even life imprisonment if convicted.
