STOCKHOLM (AP) – A Swedish doctor who admitted to abducting a woman and locking her up in a home-made bunker had planned the crime for years and may have tried to capture other victims, prosecutors said as the trial started Monday.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers gave opening statements in the Stockholm district court before proceedings continued behind closed doors.
The 38-year-old man, whose name wasn’t published in Sweden in line with privacy rules, has admitted to sedating the woman, abducting her and locking her up for almost a week in a soundproofed bunker he built inside a machine shed next to his home. He denies charges that he also raped her.
The victim’s lawyer Jens Hogstrom told newspaper Expressen that his client was traumatized by what happened and deeply stressed by having to face the doctor in court.
Hogstrom said she is demanding 380,000 kronor ($44,000) in damages. That isn’t an unusual amount in Sweden, where damages are much lower than in, for example, the United States.