Helsinki police said they found no evidence of criminal acts committed by school staff and authorities prior to the violent death of a 16-year-old boy in the Koskela district last December.
On Friday, 4 December, the teen was subjected to a brutal, cruel, and humiliating ordeal for several hours leading up to his death, prosecutors said in March. The victim was relentlessly bullied for an extended period before that night and was assaulted at the same location on each of the three previous Friday evenings.
During a preliminary investigation police interviewed staff from the victim's school as well as child protection authorities, related to the bullying and assaults of the boy. The probe was intended to reveal whether school staff or the authorities had committed any crimes.
Police said the probe primarily examined whether staff members had broken breach of duty laws.
"The Helsinki Police Department obtained a good deal of information in the investigation. The preliminary investigation file mainly consists of official documents, reports and statements. The [probe] obtained statements from a total of 44 people," chief inspector Markku Silén said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The three teenagers facing murder and several other charges were found to be criminally responsible for killing the boy, following a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. Helsinki District Court is scheduled to issue a verdict on the case on Friday afternoon.
Police: School intervened in boy's bullying
Police said the victim had concealed and misled adults about the source of the injuries he sustained in the beatings in the weeks leading up to the deadly assault.
In its investigation report, police said that staff at the victim's school had intervened appropriately about the bullying, adding that the institution had not failed to care for the safety at the site nor disregarded obligations to maintain and oversee peace at the school.
Police said that, consequently, the probe did not reveal any legal grounds to suspect misconduct by school staff.
The victim did not live at home at the time of his death, according to police, but instead resided at a child protective services facility.
Following the final assault of the boy, on Friday, 4 December 2020, the perpetrators left him lying on the ground at the scene, where his body was discovered by construction workers three days later.
The police's preliminary investigation report outlined a somewhat tense situation at the child welfare institution on the weekend of the boy's death.
Child protection services
Chief inspector Silén said that the rules and guidelines surrounding child protection were subject to a certain degree of interpretation.
"From the point of view of an individual child welfare institution, the resources available over the weekend and the number of people on call can have a major impact on what measures are actually appropriate to take," Silén said in the statement.
However, the investigation did not reveal evidence that the child welfare workers had failed to fulfil their legal and regulatory obligations as they carried out their duties, and generally met the requirements in the Child Welfare Act.
Police said there were no legal grounds to suspect child welfare staff of breaking the law.
"The main conclusion of the preliminary investigation is that there is no reason to suspect a breach of duty, negligent breach of duty or any other crime by primary school teachers, principals, child protection workers, other officials or anyone else," Silén said.
Police began investigating the activities of child welfare and school staff members at the end of January, when the case was transferred to the prosecutor's office.