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CRIME

Knutby: Why a Swedish town notorious for murder is back in the spotlight

In Sweden, the small town of Knutby became infamous 16 years ago when a local church congregation was linked to an attempted double murder. As three former members of the 'sect-like' congregation face trial unrelated to the previous court case, here are the key things to know about what's known in Sweden as the 'Knutby drama'.

Published: 15 May 2019 16:49 CEST
Updated: 14 January 2020 14:33 CET
Knutby: Why a Swedish town notorious for murder is back in the spotlight
The house of the pastor whose wife was found murdered in mysterious circumstances. Photo: Sara Winsnes/SvD/TT

The two court cases in brief

In January 2004, a man was found shot in Knutby, a town of a few hundred residents north of Uppsala, before a young woman (his neighbour and employee) was found murdered in her bed just hours later.

The murdered woman's husband was a pastor in the local pentecostal church, and the day after the murder, his former nanny confessed to the killing.

In May 2019, new charges were brought against three former members of the congregation, unrelated to the 2004 case.

READ MORE: All of The Local's articles on Knutby

Three members of Knutby sect face charges 15 years after trial that shook a nation
File photo: Tomas Oneborg/SvD/TT

The first court case: The murder

The victims were Alexandra Fossmo, wife of the pastor Helge Fossmo, and 30-year-old Daniel Linde, the husband of the Fossmos' former nanny.

Alexandra Fossmo was killed after being shot three times and stabbed in her bed in the early hours of January 10th, 2004, shortly before Linde was shot in the face and seriously injured, after answering the door to the assailant. He survived the attack.

The following day, 26-year-old Sara Svensson, who had previously been employed as a nanny to the Fossmos, confessed to the killings and showed police where the gun was, but it soon became clear that her motive was complex.

It later emerged that Svensson and Helge Fossmo, the pastor, had been romantically involved and that he had manipulated her through anonymous text messages she interpreted as messages from God.

READ ALSO: Deadly violence in Sweden fell in 2018, preliminary stats show


Sara Svensson escorted to court during the trial. Photo: Bertil Ericson/Pressens Bild/TT

In court, Svensson said: “Helge's word was my law. By the grace of God I got to be his slave.” She said the pastor had told her that God had said the Christian commandment forbidding adultery did not apply to him.

In late 2004, Svensson was sentenced to institutional psychiatric care for murder while Fossmo, despite not being the one who carried out the killings, received life imprisonment for incitement to murder and attempted murder. At the time, Fossmo denied any involvement, but he confessed in 2006, claiming his feelings and behaviour had been “impregnated by a poisonous sect culture”.

Svensson was later released from care, while Fossmo remains in prison.

READ MORE: Knutby nanny who killed lover's wife set free

Fresh charges

Unrelated to the previous court case, on May 14th, 2019, it was announced that three former members of the congregation would face new charges, relating to assault and sexual exploitation of people in a position of dependence. One of those on trial, although not in relation to sexual crimes, was Åsa Waldau, the sister of Fossmo's murdered wife and a key member of the congregation known as the Bride of Christ.

Prosecutors said that there was a “punitive culture of violence” within the congregation, with Waldau accused of biting a person in the face and stabbing another in the hand with a fork, as well as multiple instances of hitting people and slamming their heads into the wall. She denies all the accusations.

Two men are also on trial, one of assault and unlawful coercion and the other of sexually exploiting a person who was dependent on him, in this case a teenage girl. The former, Peter Gembäck, has confessed and testified in connection to some of the other charges, and the latter man denies the allegation.

The trial starts on January 14th, 2020.

A court illustration of Åsa Waldau and her lawyer during the 2004 trial. Image: Birgitta Schölander/SCANPIX/TT

Life in the congregation

Members of the Knutby congregation believed that Jesus would soon return to earth, and Fossmo and Waldau were two of the highest-ranking members; there were seven leaders in total.

Witnesses have previously told a documentary by national broadcaster SVT that Waldau's position of power allowed her to convince others to do what she wanted, as those who disobeyed could face assault or ostracism. Members were expected to give around ten percent of their income to the group.

The parish in Knutby was formally closed down in 2018, at which point only a few members remained.


The offices of the parish in Knutby. Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT

Last year, a thesis by a researcher at Gothenburg University looked into the impact on children who grew up in the congregation. Doctoral student Sanja Nilsson interviewed former members aged between seven and 25, and painted a picture of a hierarchical community where members had varying status. Some children were reportedly taken from their parents to be raised by other members of the community.

“Social exclusion was recurrent. If you were judged to be wrong, you were excluded from the group. This could be for about a week or several years – those who suffered the most felt very bad psychologically and felt that they did not want to live anymore,” Nilsson told the TT newswire at the time.

“Life in the congregation was focused on the present. They had to be ready for Jesus to return at any time. The children were not well-prepared for the future and many still struggle to come to terms with their past, the former leaders and parents,” she said.

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POLICE

Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

A new report in Dagens Nyheter has revealed over 514 suspected leaks of sensitive information from at least 30 members of the police force to criminals since 2018. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 30 April 2024 12:28 CEST
Updated: 30 April 2024 15:45 CEST
Swedish police leaks scandal: How gang criminals got hold of sensitive information

What’s happened?

According to an investigative report by newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN), multiple gang members have infiltrated the police force by, for example, dating police employees, or using family connections to gain access to sensitive information about ongoing cases.

The first article in DN’s series focuses on a woman the newspaper calls Elin, who met a man, Jonas (not his real name), on a dating app when she had one year left of her police education. She falls in love, but his only goal with the relationship is to get a source within the police force which he can use for access to secret information.

Over the course of four years until she was caught, she made multiple illegal searches in the police register for Jonas, his associates and enemies, as well as providing him with information on ongoing investigations against him.

Other cases investigated by the newspaper include a border guard who sold classified information to gangs, a police officer who leaked information to what DN describes as “one of Sweden’s most notorious criminals” and an investigator who was dating a man she was investigating, who she shared screenshots of sensitive information with.

In another case, the police received a tip-off that information was being leaked to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. It was discovered that a group of five alarm operators had made an unusually high number of searches for members of the Hells Angels, who were later discovered to have connections with the gang that they had lied about during their background checks.

What have the consequences of these leaks been?

In some cases, the leaks preceded revenge attacks on enemies of the gang member involved in the relationship. In other cases, the gang members’ enemies disappeared or were murdered.

Some of the people from the police force involved in the leaks were sentenced to fines for illegal data access or breaches of professional secrecy, while the evidence against others was not sufficient to prosecute. 

At least 30 employees had for different reasons been considered “security risks” and either resigned or were forced to quit, the newspaper reported, with over 514 suspected leaks taking place from police to criminals since 2018.

How do criminals find police officers?

According to DN, they look for things that can be used as blackmail, like police officers who buy drugs, or set “honey traps”, like the one used against Elin, where they meet police officers or students on dating apps and start a relationship.

“You take Tinder, for example, and set your search radius so the police school is in the centre. When you get a match, it’s easy to check if it’s a student, through class lists or how they present themselves on social media. They’re proud of their line of work,” Jonas told DN.

They might also use their family connections to put pressure on relatives who work in the police force.

Why is this important?

It’s important because Sweden has seen a rise in gang-related violence in recent years, with a surge in shootings and bombings as gangs fight for control over different drug markets.

Swedes also have a high level of trust in the police force – 72 percent according to a 2024 study by Medieakademin, topping the list of state authorities, with a higher level of trust than universities, healthcare, the courts and even the Swedish church. This was five percent higher than in 2023.

Although the vast majority of police officers do not leak information to criminal networks, Sweden does not have a history of organised crime infiltrating the police force, so officials are keeping a close eye on these leaks to make sure they don’t become more common.

On April 29th, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told TT newswire that the leaks were “very serious”, potentially putting trust in the police force at risk.

“There are many great risks and one is that trust in police declines, that people get the idea that mafia-like methods are used to infiltrate law enforcement,” he said, before adding that he was unable to say whether it constituted a threat to national security or not purely based on the initial DN article.

“But the mere suspicion of these types of connections are damaging,” he told the newswire.

What happens now?

Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told DN that he planned to call a meeting with police leadership about the reports, which he described as “extremely serious”.

“[At that meeting] we will consider the need for further measures,” he said.

“Leaking sensitive information to criminals is against the law and can have very damaging consequences for the work of the police force,” Strömmer told DN, adding that it could undermine trust in the police and “damage democracy”.

Last summer, the government increased the penalty for breaching professional secrecy, and a special investigator was tasked with looking at a potential reform of the rules on corruption and professional misconduct in February – the Crime Prevention Council is also involved in that investigation, where it has been asked to provide information on how gangs use government employees.

“Protecting the integrity of the justice system against infiltration and other security threats is a central part of the new national strategy against organised crime that the government decided on earlier this year, and it is given the highest priority in our assignments to the authorities,” Strömmer told the newspaper.

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