Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Exorcism priest had sex with daughter

An Orthodox Christian priest in the Stockholm region has been sentenced to jail after being convicted of having sex with his mentally disabled daughter.

Published: 17 January 2008 12:49 CET

The priest was found by Södertörn District Court to have bound, beaten and had sex with the girl.

All details pertaining to the victim are subject to confidentiality, but prosecutor Johanna Lindgren confirmed that she was over 15, the age of majority, at the time the priest had sex with her.

During the trial it emerged that the 69-year-old priest believed his daughter to be possessed by the devil. His acts of violence against her were a means of driving evil spirits from her body, the court heard.

The priest believed that there were three possible ways to exorcise the devil and “cure” his daughter. These involved prayer, bringing her body into contact with a crucifix, and blessing her with holy water, newspaper Mitt i Södertörn reports.

When none of these methods produced the desired results, the priest grew ever more violent.

In October, a passer-by contacted the police after finding the girl bruised and battered in a playground near her home. The witness heard that she had been tied up by her father and lashed with a belt.

When questioned by police, the girl said that her father had also forced her into sex as a means of driving Satan from her body.

The priest admitted to tying his daughter up to prevent her from breaking things and injuring others, but he denied having sex with the girl.

The court however found there to be compelling evidence to back up the girl’s claims and sentenced the priest to one year and three months in jail. The prison term would have been longer had not the priest also lost his job, the court said.

He was also ordered to pay his daughter 127,000 kronor in damages.

“I am pleased with the verdict itself but I would like to have seen a longer sentence,” prosecutor Johanna Lindgren told The Local.

The court found the priest guilty of assault, false imprisonment and incest.

The prosecutor said that both she and the counsel for the defence had lodged appeals.

POLITICS

‘A group of Nazis’: Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, Swedish police and participants said.

Published: 25 April 2024 06:08 CEST
'A group of Nazis': Masked men attack Swedish anti-fascism meeting

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Gubbängen theatre in a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, adding that it had no information about the injuries suffered.

READ ALSO:

According to the Expo anti-racism magazine, which had been invited to give a presentation at the event, “a group of Nazis” came into the theatre foyer just before the event was to begin and threw smoke bombs into the hall.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence… (and) vandalised the premises before throwing a type of smoke bomb that filled the entrance hall with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

“It’s terrible that a meeting organised by the left-wing party has been attacked,” said Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, quoted by the TT news agency.

“This type of hateful behaviour has no place in our free and open society,” he said, adding that he had contacted the party’s leader to express his “deepest support”.

All of Sweden’s political parties denounced the assault as an “attack on democracy”, TT said.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar told public broadcaster SVT that an “open event, for equality among individuals” was “violently attacked by those who seemed to be Nazis”.

She also called on “all political forces” to fight the “far right that threatens our democracy”.

SHOW COMMENTS