"I wanted to leave Sweden, so I agreed," says the teenage boy in Lyngby District Court just north of Copenhagen.
He was 15 years and two months old when he travelled from a city in central Sweden to a small town outside the Danish capital in June 2025. He is now facing charges of attempted murder in Denmark, a country known for its tough stance on gang crime, even when it involves minors.
He is wearing a dark blue hoodie, crosses his arms on the bench in front of him, and then leans his head against one arm as the prosecutor reads out the charges. How did he end up here?
It started in Sweden, he says.
Ran away from home
Back home in Sweden, he had recently been suspended from school after hitting another student and was afraid of ending up in a foster home or perhaps a care home. Either way, it was terrible, a friend had told him. That is why he ran away from home and was later wanted by police.
I tried sleeping with some friends, but the police always came, he says.
He says he does not remember how he came into contact with the four men who offered him a murder assignment.
The teenage boy, who has now turned 16, remembers what he replied: The assassination mission was “a possibility” that should be considered. According to him, it was a way to get away from Sweden.
While waiting for news, he was given a train ticket to Copenhagen and accommodation in an apartment just outside the Danish capital. A weapon was later delivered to the apartment.
When Danish police raided the apartment, he was arrested and has been in custody ever since.
Had he done it?
In Denmark, you can be convicted of attempted murder if it is proven that the murder plan has begun even though no shots have been fired.
The teenage boy's defence attorney, Jakob Buch-Jepsen, believes that this is where the prosecutor has a challenge in presenting evidence that supports a conviction.
If my client had realised what he had accepted, if he knew what would happen, would he have done it?
According to the prosecutor, during the three days he was in the apartment, the teenage boy was instructed to carry out an attempted murder against an unknown person. The identity of the intended target is not disclosed in the indictment.
Three men and a woman are charged with complicity in attempted murder. All are Danish citizens. Like the Swedish teenage boy, they deny the crime.
If convicted, the teenage boy will become the youngest person in Denmark to be convicted of contract murder, according to the Ritzau news agency. The trial is scheduled to last for 15 days until November 24.
Statistics from the National Unit for Serious Crime (NSK) show that from April 2024 to January 2026, there have been 59 cases that are considered to be contract crime – also known as “crime as a service”. A total of 125 charges have been brought.
According to NSK, the cases show a recent trend where criminal gangs hire Swedish children and young people to commit serious crimes in Denmark.
TT has asked exactly how many Swedish children and young people this concerns without receiving an answer.
In several cases that TT has followed, young Swedes have been sentenced to several years in prison.
