He is pale and dressed in a white t-shirt. When the press corps takes its place to listen, he chooses to sit with his back to the audience, facing Judge Linda Palmenäs and the lay judges.
If he is convicted of gross rape, the plaintiff's lawyer Azar Akbarian is demanding 320,000 kronor in damages.
The crime should be considered gross, says prosecutor Anders Stridh, due to the fact that the 38-year-old mixed drugs and medication in the alcohol he offered the girl and due to her young age.
Locked Doors
The girl herself is sitting in a side room waiting for the judge to decide on locked doors, and such a decision is also made after the first ten minutes.
They met by chance outside a grocery store last fall, and she asked him for help in getting cigarettes. Then came a period of intense contact between them, during which he lured her with all the alcohol and all the drug-classified tablets he had to offer, while simultaneously pestering her to come home to him.
Now he acknowledges that he offered her, but denies the rest.
During the first day of the trial, only the suspicions of rape and the provision of alcohol and drugs are addressed. Next week, he will also be held accountable for a large number of sexual assaults against women and girls who were secretly filmed under their skirts.
Conditionally Released
The man previously lived at Nytorget in Stockholm, and there, in his home, he filmed rapes, sexual abuses, and assaults on sleeping or unconscious women. The crimes were uncovered when the police went through his phone due to suspicion of drug offenses.
He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released conditionally after serving two-thirds of his sentence – despite repeated misconduct during his prison time and the risk of reoffending being assessed as high.
The new criminal suspicions against him relate to incidents during his conditional release.
