‘Psychotic’ art student charged for fake suicide

Prosecutors in Stockholm have filed three charged against the 35-year-old Odell, a student at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) in Stockholm, with violent resistance, dishonest conduct and raising a false alarm.

“Quite simply, I believe she’s guilty of these crimes,” said public prosecutor Stefan Lind to TV4 news website Nyhetskanalen.se.

Odell’s alleged crimes took place on January 21st of this year when she was apprehended by police on Stockholm’s Liljeholm bridge following what looked like an attempt to commit suicide.

She was then taken to the psychiatric ward at St. Göran’s Hospital for treatment, only revealing the following day that the whole episode had been faked as a part of her final art exam at Konstfack.

The incident gained wide attention, with Odell and the school being heavily criticized by leading politicians and doctors from St. Göran’s Hospital.

Earlier this week, Odell’s final exam opened at the school under the title “Okänd, kvinna 2009-349701” (‘Unidentified woman 2009-349701’), which portrays in three parts the time before, during, and after her simulated psychotic break on the bridge.

“Closed psychiatric care is the most dictatorial part of society we have, through which a patient can have all their rights taken from them. [And] it certainly needs to be, as I have also been helped by it myself. But there also needs to be control; patients are sometimes not believed,” Odell told TT in connection with the exhibition’s opening.