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CRIME

Swedish ‘butcher’ murderer gets 16 years

A Swedish woman who killed and then hacked up a female love rival has been sentenced to 16 years in prison and also ordered to pay damages to the victim's family.

Published: 19 December 2014 12:17 CET
Swedish 'butcher' murderer gets 16 years
Forensic experts examine the scene where the victim's body was dumped in Askersund. Photo: Pavel Koubek/TT

The 25-year-old was accused of killing a 22-year-old woman in a brutal attack in Askersund, central Sweden, in June. The victim was repeatedly stabbed before her body was then chopped up with a saw and knife. 

In court the 25-year-old denied the murder charge but did admit to aggravated assault, manslaughter and grave desecration charges.

She told the court that she went to the victim's apartment to confront her as they were two parts of a love triangle involving a man they were both seeing.

The murder was committed in an apartment after the woman showed up with a range of weapons including a set of hammers, a carving knife as well as sleep hormones, syringes and needles.

She recalled that after killing the woman she then dismembered the body in the bathroom with a saw and knife. Afterwards she then stuffed the remains into Ikea bags and dumped them in a forest.

The prosecutor demanded a life sentence for murder and argued in court that the killing was premeditated.

Swedish newspaper Expressen had previously reported that the woman allegedly went online to search for tips on how to carry out a murder in advance of the killing.

In court the judge sentenced the woman to 16 years in prison for the murder, which includes a punishment for grave desecration charges. The woman will also have to pay 284,000 kronor ($36,700) in damages to the victim's family.

"The prosecution had to prove that she acted with intent and it was there that the prosecutor had a fairly uphill struggle," chief judge Björn Lindén at the Örebro district court told SVT after announcing the verdict.

In summing up the judge ruled that the 25-year-old had acted recklessly and described how she attacked her love rival several times in the stairwell (pictured above) with a hammer.

At one point she left the stairwell to go to another room and pick up hunting knife to then stab her again. However, the judge said he was unable to determine with absolute that the woman had arrived at the apartment that night with the express intention of murdering the victim. 

The murder has captivated Swedish media as it involved two woman in a butcher style killing. On average there is just one dismembering type murder in Sweden a year and the culprit is usually a man who has killed another man or a woman.  

TT/The Local/pr

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POLITICS

‘Very little debate’ on consequences of Sweden’s crime and migration clampdown

Sweden’s political leaders are putting the population’s well-being at risk by moving the country in a more authoritarian direction, according to a recent report.

Published: 29 April 2024 08:56 CEST
'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast. 

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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