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Professor resigns after sex offence conviction

A professor convicted of groping a teenage girl has resigned from his job at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

Published: 4 March 2008 17:41 CET

The academic was found guilty last year of having placed his hand inside the panties of a teenage girl he met on a bus.

According to the girl, the professor pressed up close and groped her while relating his sexual fantasies, Borås Tidning reports.

Using a false first name, he told the the girl he was an underwear photographer for the Lindex clothing chain.

Both the district and appeal courts believed the girl’s version of events and awarded the professor a suspended sentence and a fine equivalent to 60 days’ wages.

The man, who worked half time at Karolinska Institutet, is to receive a severance package worth six months wages.

The professor is also employed by Södra Älvsborg Hospital in western Sweden. Negotiations are currently underway with a view to removing the academic from his post.

He has been on a paid leave of absence from both jobs since being convicted.

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday.

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised.

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday.

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism.

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence.

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks.

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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