Published: Less than 20 min ago
The high-ranking defense chief sold his partner as a prostitute for several years.
Two years after the man’s pimping conviction was established, he admits that the activity took place, but claims that the girlfriend was in on it.
– I had no idea that it could be illegal, he says in the podcast PodMe Documentary.
On July 2, 2019, a high-ranking manager within the Armed Forces was sentenced to ten months in prison for pimping. The then 52-year-old man had for several years promoted the prostitution of a woman with whom he had been in a long-term relationship. In October of the following year, the Court of Appeal upheld the district court’s verdict. By that time, the man had been fired from his prominent role within the Swedish security services.
Two years later, the former chief of defense talks about the events for the first time. In an exclusive interview with PodMe Dokumentär, he says that the girlfriend was the driving force in prostitution, and that he urged her to stop.
– My perspective is that she wants to do this. She runs it all. There is no compulsion. I don’t even have a thought there and then that there should be something illegal. Inappropriate can be discussed, and immoral, but not that it would be illegal, says the man, who is called “Thomas” in the podcast.
– She initiates it all. I’m in, it’s me. But it is also very clear in text messages that after the first time I say no. I don’t want to do this.
“You were born a whore”
The evidence speaks a different language. According to the woman, who is called Linda in the documentary, she was manipulated by the defense chief.
– He often told me that he was very excited about it, that he loved me so much because I fulfilled his dream by being a little whore that he owns and sells, she has said in questioning, according to the documentary.
The couple had met via a dating site in 2010 and the woman had immediately taken a liking to the man whom she described as “verbal, intelligent and quite square”. She felt she had met the man of her life – someone she could have an intellectually stimulating conversation with.
In questioning, colleagues have given a similar picture of the defense chief; a calm and wise family man with a warm sense of humor.
But in the relationship, the defense chief soon wanted to start controlling the woman, she has told in questioning. He began deciding what she would wear and begins to introduce her to increasingly violent forms of sex.
– He could twist my nipples so hard that the skin cracked. He could use collars and harness me. Make me feel like an animal, Linda has said in questioning.
Afterwards, he was able to treat her tenderly and be the man she fell in love with. In retrospect, she doesn’t remember what she was involved in and what she felt compelled to do to make him like her.
– When he was most excited, it was in connection with me being in a lot of pain. It made me feel like I wanted to give it to him, found ways to explain that he liked me so much. I was ready to do anything.
Broke down
Linda calls the initial part of the relationship the “breakdown period”, where the roles of dominant and suppressed were formed.
– He could force me to sit under a table and lick his feet while he read the newspaper, she has said in questioning.
– It didn’t feel good, but I wanted to be there for him.
The couple talked about buying a house together, but according to the defense chief, it was difficult to implement because the woman had debts. To pay them off, she should prostitute herself, he said, according to the interview with the woman. In 2013, the first ad was posted on a website where the woman’s sexual services were offered for payment.
In an SMS conversation, Thomas wrote, among other things: “You will be used. The ambition is to sell you.”
He concluded his message:
“We have an exciting journey ahead of us. The design of a harlot.”
Managed contacts and bookings
The first case of prostitution took place in a disabled toilet inside the buyer’s workplace at Östermalm in Stockholm. Thomas stood to the side and masturbated. Then it continued. According to the verdict, the defense manager managed the contact with customers, arranged text and images for the advertisements, booked the hotel rooms where the prostitution took place and drove Linda there. Sometimes Thomas himself was present.
– I’m interested in her sexuality in this. And you can call me dirty old man, you can, but that’s between me and her, what we have. But these accusations that are in this, that I would force, it is as baseless as it is bizarre, says Thomas.
Linda felt manipulated into the business.
– I felt seen when I did this, and not seen if I said no. Even though it was on completely crazy grounds, I got some kind of confirmation, she has said in questioning.
Bought a villa
Soon Linda had paid off her debts, but it took over a year before the house dream became a reality in the form of a joint villa outside Stockholm.
The prostitution continued, while Linda and Thomas went to their jobs and drove their respective children to school and various activities. Thomas was promoted to a higher position within the Swedish security service. The couple were seen as social and outgoing and often had dinner with others, not infrequently with Thomas’ colleagues in the Armed Forces.
There were many hotel nights, many visits to the homes of sex buyers – and many who bought sex from Linda for several years before the business began to wind down at the end of 2017. In a text message to Thomas, she wrote:
“From today I am nobody’s whore. I don’t know if you can ever call me that again, even when we have sex. I hope that in the future I will find my way back to a healthy sexuality. Fantasies are one thing, but I will protect myself from prostitution.”
She concluded: “There has also been violence, that is a fact. That is why this ends today.”
Compared to Captain Dress
The relationship ended. On November 24, 2018, Linda went to a police station in Stockholm and told everything.
– She was very collected, calm, very elegant, with branded clothes and such, says Veronica Månsson, the civil investigator who held the first interrogation with Linda, in the documentary.
In December 2018, Inger Ekberg, an investigator at the Stockholm Police, was linked to the case. She had worked with intimate partner violence for 15 years.
– I am told that it is a woman who made a report about abuse but who has a lot more to tell, says Inger Ekberg in the documentary.
She draws parallels to police chief Göran Lindberg, also called “Captain Klänning”, who lived a double life and was convicted of aggravated rape in the summer of 2010.
– After the interrogation, I checked Google and saw him sitting with a high-ranking police chief. Then the feeling becomes “who can be trusted in this?” This is in the style of Captain Dress.
Thomas hates the comparison.
– It is deeply, deeply offensive, to even be mentioned in the same context as this Captain Klänning, who, if I understood correctly, is a policeman who raped girls and things like this, he says in the documentary.
“A security risk for Sweden”
It started with a report of assault and continued with a long line of suspected pimping offences.
The allegations of abuse could not be proven.
Thomas also believes that they designed a system that made it impossible to trace him to the business. Among other things, by Linda often changing cash cards. But several sex buyers say in the documentary that they knew who he was.
According to security expert Dick Malmlund, the defense chief’s actions could have put Sweden’s security at risk. He was a person with great insight into Swedish security, who had been involved in giving advice to the government on security issues. Living a double life and having such secrets made him extremely vulnerable to blackmail, says Dick Malmlund.
– He puts himself in a position where he is open to blackmail and where he can be forced to do things that are even worse, he says in the documentary.
– With the knowledge of the weaknesses in his life, one could indirectly force him to do things that are much, much worse for the security of the kingdom. If you live like this, you are an open target for anyone to come and subject you to that pressure.