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Massive police operation in Södertälje suburb

A large police presence presence was called to the Hovsjö estate in Södertälje on Thursday evening as a period marked by fighting and stone-throwing reached its peak.

Published: 4 May 2007 08:02 CEST

One bus had a window smashed by a stone while an unidentified object was thrown at a passing police car.

Shortly before 11pm police received reports that youths were tipping over cars in the area.

When they arrived in the area police did not find the youths in question. Instead elected to wait for reinforcements when their car was attacked.

Soon eighteen police cars from around the county arrived at the estate in the eastern town. Police sealed off the area in the hunt for stone throwers.

By the time the search came to an end just before 1am there had been no arrests.

“We blocked of the whole area and checked everybody, both motorists and pedestrians, but we didn’t find anything.

“There has been trouble there for quite some time. Buses have been attacked on a number of occasions and drivers don’t want to go in there any more. Also, on Wednesday another police car was attacked,” said police spokeswoman Ritha Johanson.

The Hovsjö estate was built in the seventies as part of the Million Homes Programme. Around 80 percent of its inhabitants come from an immigrant background.

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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