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BUNKER PLOT TRIAL

BUNKER

Judge goes to see secret ‘kidnap’ bunker for himself

UPDATED: The judge overseeing the trial of a Stockholm doctor who kept a woman in a bunker for six days was visiting the crime scene on Tuesday. The suspect admits taking the victim there but denies raping her.

Judge goes to see secret 'kidnap' bunker for himself
Court officials inspecting the property on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Langvad/TT
Situated close to the defendant's red wooden country house, the light and soundproofed bunker lies some 550km away from Stockholm, where the doctor usually lives and works and where his high profile trial is taking place.
 
On Tuesday, the judge overseeing the case, along with the prosecutor and defence attorney, was taken to the rural area, in Skåne in southern Sweden, to see the scene of the suspect's alleged crimes.
 
The 38-year-old doctor is accused of drugging his victim by lacing stawberries and fruit juice and driving her to his country home while wearing a mask and using a car with fake number plates.
 
He is then suspected of locking the woman into what the prosecution has described as an above-ground “bunker” he had built in his yard, which resembles a garden shed from the outside. He is also suspected of raping his victim there.
 
The building in the village of Knislinge has two thick metal security doors and includes a bespoke exercise yard, according to court documents prepared by the prosecution and made publicly available this week.
 
“It's impossible to get out of there,” commented prosecutor Peter Claeson after seeing the bunker in person.
 

Police at the property on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Langvad/TT
 
A spokesperson at Stockholm District Court confirmed to The Local earlier in the day that the judge was being accompanied by three lay judges on the round-trip. The group will seek to reach an agreement on the man's guilt as the trial continues. If the physician is found guilty, the main judge in the case will decide on his punishment, which could be as serious as a life sentence.
 
The judges were also joined by a note taker, as well as the prosecutor and the defendant's lawyer, Marie Schaub. Both the defendant and the victim were entitled to join them but declined the offer, the court source added.
 
Schaub told the court on Monday that her client was a lonely man who was suffering from a psychological disorder. She said he admitted keeping the woman against her will but denied kidnapping or raping her.
 
The doctor risks a life sentence if he is found guilty of all the charges against him. The trial continues.