In the middle of the night, one weekend in early April, three girls - thinly dressed and chilled - knocked on the door of a house in a locality in Dalsland. The girls told, among other things, that they had managed to escape after being locked up for several months.
This was the beginning of a comprehensive investigation, and now the trial in the high-profile case has begun. A man and two women who are parents to a total of eleven children are suspected of gross abuse of power against children.
The social services in three different municipalities have, in stages, made decisions to take the children into care. Instead, they were, according to the indictment, kept hidden from the authorities at various locations in Sweden, and were not allowed to attend school or visit the dentist.
Dagens Nyheter reports that the preliminary investigation contains images of tracking devices that the police found sewn into some of the children's jackets. According to prosecutor Oscar Johansson, the purpose of the hidden transmitters was for the parents to be able to find the children if they were taken into custody by the police or social services.
In December, the prosecutor stated that tracking devices had also been found on several of the social services' vehicles.
All the children are now in care and placed at a secret location.
