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KIDNAPPING

Court hands down suspended sentence in captive woman case

The 58-year old man charged with holding his girlfriend captive in a cabin for nine years, was given a suspended sentence on Thursday for abuse and molestation.

Court hands down suspended sentence in captive woman case

Charges that he was holding the woman against her will did not stand up in the Eksjö district court where the trial took place.

The result was not unexpected, as the man had already been released from custody when the trial concluded two weeks ago after having been detained since early September.

Prosecutors had wanted the man to receive a three and a half year prison sentence for gross violation of a woman’s integrity and unlawful deprivation of liberty.

The case received a great deal of attention when police arrested the man. The woman, who was gravely ill and emaciated, was taken to hospital at the time of the man’s arrest.

The man had been reported for abusing the woman but the investigation also looked into whether he had kept her locked up against her will in a small cabin outside of Eksjö.

The fact that the man was living under an assumed name and had been declared dead didn’t make the matter any simpler.

The investigation also dealt with the officer who had been sitting on a report about the man’s abuse for several months without arresting him.

The matter has been taken up by a division of the Swedish Prosecution Authority which investigates police misconduct, and a decision regarding possible charges is expected shortly, according to prosecutor Björn Ericson who heads up the division.

KIDNAPPING

Austrian triathlete freed by kidnapper after complimenting orchids

A young Austrian triathlete kidnapped while riding her bike talked her way to freedom by complimenting her captor's orchids, a police source said Saturday, confirming press reports.

Austrian triathlete freed by kidnapper after complimenting orchids
Photo: AFP

Professional triathlete Nathalie Birli, 27, was struck by a car Tuesday and broke her arm while falling to the ground near Graz in southeastern Austria, the press reports said.

The driver then knocked her out with a piece of wood and took her to his isolated home.

“When I regained consciousness, I was naked and tied up in an armchair in an old house,” Birli told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

The man forced her to drink alcohol and tried to suffocate her and drown her in a bathtub filled with cold water, Birli said.

However she managed to placate the man by complimenting him on the many orchids growing in his home.

Though he was initially “filled with hate,” the man suddenly became “nice to me” and confided that gardening was his passion before opening up about his troubled childhood, she said.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Einmal Glocknerkönigin (oder – Prinzessin ??) werden… #ziemlichnassesocken #aeroiseverything

A post shared by Nathalie Birli (@nathi_birli) on Jul 19, 2017 at 9:29am PDT

Nathalie Birli in an image posted on Instagram

Finally, he agreed to let her go and even took her home, along with her bicycle, which had a GPS system installed in it.

Police used the GPS record to track down the man and arrest him at his house, they said.

The police are now trying to determine if the 33-year-old man, who suffers from psychiatric problems, was involved in any previous kidnappings.