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CRIME

Man jailed for 18 years for ‘dating site’ murder

A 26-year-old man was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Friday for killing a man who was lured to a wooded area near Stockholm thinking he would have sex with two teen girls he met on a dating website.

Man jailed for 18 years for 'dating site' murder
The victim's body is removed from the crime scene in Solna, north of Stockholm, in September 2013. File photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Three other accomplices, including the two teenage girls, were also convicted for the crime, which took place in Solna in September 2013.

The 32-year-old victim had been beaten and stabbed to death and robbed of 5,000 kronor ($760). Police found his body in a wooded area in the Frösunda district of Solna, north of Stockholm.

The victim had come to the scene following an online exchange with the girls during which they promised to have sex with him in exchange for money.

"We get turned on by doing it outside," one of the girls wrote in a text message hours before the killing, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

The girls, aged 16 and 18, then met up with the man at a petrol station and asked him to withdraw cash from a teller machine.

In its ruling, the court stated that the girls had supported themselves by tricking unwitting male victims contacted on dating websites.

"They set up dates with men who wanted to buy sex from them, took payment in advance, and then found excuses to leave the men without fulfilling the sex purchase," the Solna District Court wrote in its decision.

After the 32-year-old withdrew cash, he walked with the teens to a nearby wooded area where the three male accomplices were waiting.

Two of the men, aged 25 and 26, faced charges of murder, while the girls and a 29-year-old man were charged with aggravated robbery, with an alternative charge of accessory to aggravated robbery.

Despite the 26-year-old's claims of innocence, the court believed there was sufficient evidence to prove he delivered the 18 stab wounds that killed the 32-year-old.

His 25-year-old accomplice was acquitted of murder, but convicted of aggravated robbery, receiving a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

The teenage girls were convicted for aggravated robbery and each sentenced to 18 months of juvenile detention.

However the 29-year-old was acquitted of being an accessory to robbery.

The court also ordered the 26-year-old to pay 118,059 kronor in compensation to the victim's family.

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STRIKES

Swedish appeals court throws out Tesla licence plate complaint

A Swedish appeals court rejected Tesla's attempt to force the Transport Agency to provide them with licence plates during an ongoing strike.

Swedish appeals court throws out Tesla licence plate complaint

The Göta Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the district court to throw out a request by US car manufacturer Tesla to force the Swedish Transport Agency to provide them with licence plates, on the grounds that a general court does not have jurisdiction in this case.

The district court and court of appeal argued that Tesla should instead have taken its complaint to an administrative court (förvaltningsdomstol) rather than a general court (allmän domstol).

According to the rules regulating the Transport Agency’s role in issuing licence plates in Sweden, their decisions should be appealed to an administrative court – a separate part of the court system which tries cases involving a Swedish public authority, rather than criminal cases or disputes between individuals which are tried by the general courts.

The dispute arose after postal service Postnord, in solidarity with a major strike by the Swedish metalworkers’ union, refused to deliver licence plates to Tesla, and the Transport Agency argued it wasn’t their responsibility to get the plates to Tesla in some other way.

The strike against Tesla has been going on for almost seven months.

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