A Lagos High Court sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square sentenced a Dane, Peter Nielsen, to death by hanging for killing his Nigerian wife and daughter.
Justice Bolanle Okikiolu-Ighile on Friday convicted Nielsen on the two counts of murder brought against him by the Lagos State Government.
The Dane, who was sentenced to death by hanging on both counts, was on June 13, 2018, charged with the death of his wife and singer, Zainab, and their three-year-old daughter, Petra.
The state government had accused him of smothering Zainab and Petra to death at 3:45am at No. 4, Flat 17, Bella Vista Tower, Banana Island, Ikoyi.
He pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of murder contrary to Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
But in a five-hour judgment, Okikiolu-Ighile, held that oral and documentary evidence before the court showed that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Nielsen smothered his wife and daughter.
“This is one of the cases of domestic violence. The DNA analysis of nail scraping brought out the assailant of Zainab. Zainab tried so much to defend herself. The evidence shows that Peter Nielsen killed his wife and daughter.
“There is evidence before the court that there was a fight between the defendant and his wife,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the judge as saying.
She held that prosecution witnesses (PW5 and PW6) testified that they heard Zainab calling Mimi (one of the girls living with the couple) for help and they heard her telling the defendant to check her phone but he kept hitting her head.
“The act of the defendant shows that he suffocated his wife and daughter. Peter has always domestically abused his wife which was shown in the police extract from Ikoyi Police Station.
“She didn’t know that her marriage to the defendant was void ab initio because Peter was already married in Denmark. You are found guilty of the murder of Zainab and Petra. I hereby pronounce that you Peter Nielsen be hanged by the neck till death. May God have mercy on you,” the judge added.