Murdered girl's mother to sue Swedish state

Carina Höglund, mother to 2008’s 10-year-old murder victim Engla, is suing the government for its inability to protect her daughter in what she claimed was a preventable attack.

• Engla's killer sentenced to life in prison (6 Oct 08)
• Engla's mother lashes out at lawyer of daughter's killer (25 Sep 08)

Höglund is taking the government to the Stockholm District Court on the grounds that police had information about her daughter’s killer, Anders Eklund, from a previous rape and murder case in 2000, yet did not act on the tips.

“What the Attorney General is saying is that we cannot expect the police to work beyond their own regulations and that they don’t need to be held accountable for their mistakes,” said Höglund to Dalarna Tidningar newspaper (DT).

If the police had acted on their tip-offs, they may have prevented the rape and murder of her ten-year-old daughter Engla, according to Höglund.

“The government will pay for their mistake,” Höglund told DT on Monday.

Höglund is aware that the chances are not in her favour when it comes to suing the state, but aims to make an attempt on behalf of her daughter, and in the hope of preventing any similar attacks in the future.

If Höglund does not succeed with the lawsuit, she will not only have to pay for her own court fees, but also the government’s, but this is a case she considers to be worth the risk.

“We won’t get Engla back. Her suffering won’t decrease. I just want to put some meaning into all this senselessness,” she said.

On April 5th, 2008, Anders Eklund ran across 10-year-old Engla as she was riding her bicycle home following football practice outside Stjärnsund in Dalarna in central Sweden.

Eklund followed the girl a short way and then began speaking to her, at which point, according to Eklund, she started acting “cheeky” and “arrogant”. Afterward, he said, he lost his senses and got “tunnel vision”.

He then raped and strangled the girl, and dumped her body in an isolated wooded area before trying to burn it.

Eight years earlier in June 2000, Eklund followed the then 31-year-old Pernilla Hellgren when she left a street festival in Falun in central Sweden.

He later attacked, raped, and strangled her, leaving the body visible and partially clothed in a wooded area.