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Police hunt would-be child strangler

Police in Trollhättan are hunting a man who attacked and tried to strangle an eight-year-old girl last Sunday, fearing that he might strike again.

Published: 22 July 2009 10:43 CEST

The attacked occurred on Sunday July 12th in the Skogshöjden residential area of Trollhättan some time between 7.30pm and 9pm, according to media reports.

The eight-year-old girl, who had been playing with friends, was missing for an hour in nearby woods and police suspect that an unidentified man tried to strangle her.

“Her mother found her shocked with injuries to her face,” Stig Rysén with the Trollhättan police told the Expressen newspaper.

The young girl is also reported to have been missing some of her clothing when she was found. The items of clothing were later found in the woods.

The eight-year-old told police that after becoming separated from her friends she was approached by the man who attacked and attempted to strangle her.

“According to doctors she was near death. We’re convinced that something very serious has happened,” said country police officer Thord Haraldsson.

According to the girl’s mother this is not the first time children have been approached in the area.

“Several months ago a man approached my 10-year-old son, asked him his name and offered him sweets. My son’s 11-year-old cousin was also chased by a man,” Carla Gergi told Expressen

Trollhättan police confirmed that they are aware of the two separate incidents which occurred in April and May.

The neighbourhood is now living in fear of any further incidents while police conduct their investigations into the most recent attack, which has been classified as attempted murder.

“It is very unpleasant. I never let my 8-year-old go alone in the woods,” said local resident Camilla Johansson to the newspaper.

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'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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