A British man accused of axing a pensioner to death with an axe in Finland after he was allegedly tied down and raped told his mum: ‘I’m not guilty.’
Garo Jlitakryan, 32, is on trial in the north-west part of the country for murder after he admitted to lashing out at the 75-year-old man in July last year after he was allegedly tied up and raped.
Jlitakryan, from London, was in the country on a charity bike ride for the armed forces charity Help for Heroes, when he claims he was raped and acted in self-defence in the victim’s flat in the remote town of Seinajoki.
Today his mother Laura Jlitakryan described her son as a ‘troubled’ soul but insisted he maintained his innocence.
Mrs Jlitakryan, 55, told MailOnline: ‘To be honest I don’t know what happened but I spoke to him after he was arrested and he told me; “mum, I’m not guilty”.’
The mother told how her 32-year-old son suffered from Aspergers syndrome and ADHD and has been to prison some eight times.
Mrs Jlitakryan said: ‘Garo has special needs – he has Aspergers and ADHD.
‘He has not lived with me since he was 14 when he was taken into a special needs unit in Swansea in south Wales.
Garo Jlitakryan (right) faces at least ten years in jail, if found guilty, following the attack which happened last July
Garo Jlitakryan (pictured) admitted lashing out at the Holma with an axe at least six times
The walls in Holma’s home were covered in blood splatter
‘He came back to London when he was 18 but he got in trouble.
‘He has been to prison about eight times – for burglary and assault.
‘When he came out the last time he said he was going to raise money for charity, for Help for Heroes.
‘And he set off on his bike in about September 2023 first to Scotland and Ireland and then he got the ferry to Sweden and from there he went on to Finland.
‘He seemed to be happy there. He was living on a farm and looking after 72 dogs.
‘I spoke to him just before he was arrested in August last year.
‘I tried to hold of him the next day but there was no answer and then I got a call from the British embassy in Finland some time later telling me that he had been arrested.
‘Since then I haven’t found anything more.
‘I don’t know if he got drunk or what happened.’
Jlitakryan faces at least 10 years in jail, if found guilty, following the attack which happened last July while he was in the Nordic country on a charity bike ride for Help for Heroes.
The Londoner told the court in South Ostrobothnia, north west Finland, he had attacked Holma 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.
He documented his cycling journey on Instagram, even posting a video update on July 31 – just two days after Holma was axed to death.
In the footage, Jlitakryan films his dancing shadow as he is moving his hips along to song ‘Someday’, with the lyrics ‘don’t give up, keep on moving on, it’s going to be alright’ ringing out in the background.
In another video, Jlitakryan filmed himself kayaking at sundown, less than two weeks before he was arrested on August 17 for killing Holma, whose body wasn’t found until days prior.
He documented his cycling journey on Instagram, even posting a video update of himself dancing on July 31 – just two days after Holma was axed to death
In another video, Jlitakryan filmed himself kayaking at sundown, less than two weeks before he was arrested on August 17 for killing Holma, whose body wasn’t found until days prior
The pensioner has been named in court documents as Markku Antero Holma and investigators found his licence at the scene (pictured above)
Holma was hit with an axe six times. Pictured above is an axe found in the victim’s home, but only his DNA is on it
The two men had met at a spa in Kauhava on July 27, a day after Jlitakryan arrived in Finland via a ferry. They then spent the night in a hotel room paid for by Holma.
On July 28, the 75-year-old was captured on CCTV with Holma as he bought him a new phone before taking him to his home in Seinajoki, where Jlitakryan did some gardening work for Holma.
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 up with bandages. I couldn’t move properly,’ he told South Ostrobothnia District Court, where his trial is being held.
He claims that the pensioner raped him. ‘The ordeal was horrible. When it was over, he rolled over next to me. Then he started snoring and I decided to escape. I went to the kitchen and cut my ties there,’ he said.
Jlitakryan told the court Holma 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.’
Investigators believe the pensioner was killed between midnight and 2.14am on July 29.
On July 28, Holma was captured on CCTV with Jlitakryan as he bought him a new phone before taking him to his home in Seinajoki, where the younger man did some gardening work for him
CCTV showed Jlitakryan and Holma walking near shops
‘I remember hitting him twice, maybe three times. The man didn’t move and so my idea was to leave,’ Jlitakryan said
Jlitakryan’s bicycle is pictured above with an axe attached to the frame. The axe appears to be different to the one found in the pensioner’s apartment, according to reports
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
Jlitakryan said: ‘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.’
Holma’s car was found in a ditch outside Kyyjarvi – about a 90-minute drive from the victim’s home – just hours later.
Jlitakryan blamed the accident on a deer that ‘appeared out of nowhere’, according to a Whatsapp message sent to his friend just before 6am on July 29. ‘If the cops had come, I would have been screwed,’ he added about leaving the car behind.
The axe used in the killing has not been found. While one axe was discovered in Holma’s apartment, only his DNA was found on it.
A second axe could be seen attached to the frame of Jlitakryan’s bike in photos taken by a local on July 27. The second axe has not been found.
The Briton said he used the victim’s axe to kill him, although he gave different versions of where he disposed of it and police have been unable to locate the weapon. He denied bringing an axe on his cycling trip.
In the weeks following the killing, the 32-year-old is said to have searched online for information about the crime – before the pensioner’s body had even been found.
The killed 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.
On the right is Holma’s house, with his red car in the first spot of the carport on the left
He was in the Nordic country on a charity bike ride for Help the Heroes
Jlitakryan told the court Holma then prevented him from leaving and threatened him with an axe
Jlitakryan said he was sexually assaulted by Holma
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.
In his last Instagram before he was arrested, Jlitakryan posted a drunken monologue about ‘the language barrier is a piss take’ and that if you ‘don’t learn a language you are going to feel an outsider’.
Swigging from a glass he added: ‘I dunno I may just leave this place, it’s a f***ing stressful thing. You can’t even get a relationship because you can’t speak the language.’
Other images show him working at the husky farm and there is also a picture of his black bike that he was cycling with.
Prosecutors have demanded a ten-year prison sentence for Jlitakryan.
The court has ordered a mental health examination for the accused, after which the trial is set to resume.
