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CRIME

Security guard saved by bulletproof vest

A bulletproof vest may have saved a security guard's life in a shooting incident near Båstad on Sunday night. The man was shot with a handgun in the village of Östra Karup in western Sweden.

Published: 2 April 2007 08:00 CEST

“Some fortunate circumstances mean that he is still alive today,” said police spokesman Hans Nilsson.

The security guard was shot in the chest at close range but the bullet did not manage to penetrate his protective vest. He was not serious injured in the attack.

The incident happened after the guard saw three man acting suspiciously outside the premises of a company in Östra Karup just after 1am.

He followed their car for around one kilometre until they pulled over.

In the ensuing scuffle a gun was produced and a shot was fired at the security guard.

The three men immediately drove away from the scene.

According to the security guard, the men were driving a dark Saab 9000. Police in Skåne and Halland were deployed to search for the men but their car has not yet been found.

There are no traces of a crime having been committed at the company where the guard first caught sight of the car.

Police are treating the incident as attempted murder.

Sweden's 'snippa' rape case to go to the High Court

Attorney General Petra Lundh criticised the appeals court for “a number of serious miscarriages of justice” in the way it dealt with the case.

The man had been sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2021 after the district court heard how he, in the prosecutor’s words, had “by sticking his hand inside the plaintiff’s shorts and underwear, holding his hand on the the girl’s ‘snippa’ and having a finger inside her ‘snippa’, performed a sexual act” on her.

The girl’s testimony was found to be credible, in part because she had told her mother about the incident on their way home.

But in February this year, the appeals court threw out the conviction, arguing that it was unclear what the girl means by the word snippa, a word taught to Swedish children to refer to female genitalia.

Despite agreeing with the district court that the man had touched the girl between her legs and inserted his finger into her snippa, the court found that it could not be determined whether the girl was referring to her vulva or to her vagina.

If the man had inserted his finger into her vagina, that would have met the standard to be classified as rape. Because the girl said that his finger was “far in”, but could not state exactly how far, the appeals court found that it could not establish beyond doubt that the man had inserted his finger in her vagina and not her the vulva.

Because no lower-grade charges, such as sexual abuse or molestation, had been filed against the man, the appeals court could not consider other offences.

This week, the Attorney General lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court against the appeal court’s decision. Now the Swedish Supreme Court has given the appeals court until April 12 to explain its decision-making in the case.

The Supreme Court has not decided whether it will hear an appeal against the decision to clear the man of rape charges.

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