False confessions?

Tweet

Some weeks ago I read a true crime book about a case that happened several years ago. A Danish man (E) with an intellectual disability was convicted of arson and murder. Now some people are wondering if they convicted the right person. The book described the details of the case. 35 people died in one of the fires and the person who was convicted is considered one of the worst criminals in Denmark, but the question is: Did he do it or not? A person who was involved in the case has come forward. He used to drive E around in the area where the fires happened. He pointed at the places where the fires happened and asked E if he was responsible for the fires. E always said yes. He decided to test E, so he went to places where no fires had happened. He asked E: "Did you start this fire?" There had never been a fire, but E said yes. But why did he confess if he didn't do it? The author of the book thinks that E enjoyed the attention from the police, and the drives. He didn't want it to stop. It was a nice break from his boring life at the institution where he spent most of his time. When he had been convicted he missed the visits from the "nice policemen" He considered them his friends. He was lonely and because of his intellectual disability he didn't see the visits from the police the same way that other people would have seen them. If the fire that killed 35 people was one of the false confessions, the real person has never been caught or punished. There is some evidence that it could be a false confession. I won't mention all of the details here because the discussion would become much too long, but that book really made me wonder what actually happened.