British man hacks man, 75, to death with an axe after 'being tied up and raped by him' at his home in Finland

Garo Jlitakryan, 32, admitted to lashing out at the man, who has not been named, with an axe at least six times, his trial has heard. Jlitakryan faces at least 10 years in jail, if found guilty, following the attack. The attack happened last July while he was in the Scandinavian country on a charity bike ride for Help for Heroes.

The Londoner told the court in South Ostrobothnia, north west Finland, he had attacked the man at the end of July at his flat in Seinajoki after he was raped. Jlitakryan, who works as a valet, said he had been on a charity ride across Europe and ended up in Finland last July eventually finding work gardening in the victim’s flat.

He described they initially met at a spa in the city and had spent the night in a hotel before going back to the victims flat. Jlitakryan said: “He told me that if I helped him, he could give me sexual favours, but I didn’t want sexual favours I just wanted to rest and charge my phone.

“We ate lunch together, which tasted terrible, then I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was tied with bandages, I couldn’t move properly. He then committed sexual acts on me and I couldn’t escape. The ordeal was horrible. When it was over, he rolled next to me. Then he started snoring and I decided to escape. I went to the kitchen and cut my ties there.”

Jlitakryan told the court the man then prevented him from leaving and threatened him with an axe saying ‘no one would believe’ him. He added: “The man had an axe in his hand, I had no choice but to defend myself. It was either him or me. He slipped and fell and I went to hit him with the wooden handle of the axe but I also slipped and the axe hit the man.

“I remember hitting him twice, maybe three times. The man didn’t move and so my idea was to leave. My bike was in the man’s car. I packed my things, took the axe and my devices that were charging, panicked and then fled in the car, driving east.”

The man’s daughter told the court she raised the alarm after failing to hear from him and police eventually found her father on August 14, more than two weeks after he died. She told the court she didn’t believe her father was ‘capable of attacking anyone because of his ill health’. Jlitakryan was eventually arrested by police on August 17 working at a husky farm almost 300 miles away after the car was found abandoned in a ditch.