Man charged for sex with door-to-door saleswomen

A 36-year-old Gothenburg businessman has been charged with paying for sex after three young women knocked on his hotel room door and offered him their bodies in return for cash.

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Kalmar District Court will decide later this spring whether to convict the man of breaking Swedish laws prohibiting the purchase of sexual services. As it is not illegal to sell sex, the women, aged 19-21, have not been charged with committing an offence.

The case has its origins in a girls' night out on the town in Kalmar in south east Sweden last February. Fretting over how to replenish their rapidly emptying pockets, the three woman had a discussion that resulted in them descending on a local hotel, newspaper Barometern reports.

But the women's search for a willing john got off to a poor start when the first man they approached rejected their advances and shut the door to his room.

Undeterred, the women resumed their hunt for a man with a bulging wallet and a hankering for illicit sex.

"The idea was that we would take the money and run. If that didn't work, all three of us would have sex with the man," one of the women told police.

The plan clicked into place when the second door on which they knocked yielded a business traveller who decided to let the women into his room. After haggling over a price and settling on 1,500 kronor ($210), half the amount demanded by the women, the four parties involved removed most of their clothing and began kissing and cuddling, according to the women's version of events.

But that was where the fun ended for the businessman. After assenting to the offer of a massage in the bath tub, the 36-year-old slipped into the bathroom and awaited his treatment.

Seeing the chance to flee, the women made a dash for their clothes.

"It wasn't something we had decided. Originally we had intended giving him value for money," the 21-year-old woman said, according to Barometern.

Their escape plans were scuppered however when the customer, sensing all was not well, returned to the room.

A heated exchange followed, which resulted in the three women rushing for the exit in a state of near undress. Despite telling a receptionist that the 36-year-old had tried to rape them, the women decided to return to the room where the man agreed to allow them to dress if they returned the money he had given them.

While the women all furnished the police with similar descriptions of the evening's events, the man claimed that there was nothing sexual about his encounter with the young women.

He was however unable to explain why the women were so poorly clad for the winter weather when they emerged from his hotel room.