Finland’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a life sentence handed down by two lower courts to a 38-year-old French citizen for stabbing his child to death in a Porvoo play park in November 2017.
Finland's highest court rejected Nicolas Mathieu Cherchel'sapplication to appeal his life sentence.
Psychiatric evaluations had found that while Cherchel had mental health problems, he was fully aware of his actions at the time of the crime.
An appeals court said the premeditated nature of the crime—as well as its cruelty—outweighed any mitigating circumstances, such as mental instability.
The man, who is a French citizen from the Caribbean, stabbed his daughter in a public park after abducting her when her mother was putting her in the family car. The daughter was taken to hospital by helicopter but succumbed to her injuries.
The parents were in the midst of a custody battle at the time of their daughter's death, and the mother had sought a restraining order against the father because he had threatened to kill the family.