On Christmas Eve 2022, the girl comes to the emergency room in Lund with life-threatening burns after ingesting vinegar. TV4 Nyheterna has gained a unique insight into the video material from the interrogation of the girl, which began already in the children’s intensive care unit after she had her stomach removed.
Police: Can you tell me what happened?
– I don’t want you to know, says the girl in the video material.
The first interrogations were about trust
The questioning of the seven-year-old then continues in what is known as the children’s house. For TV4 Nyheterna, Petra Johansson, an experienced expert on child interrogations at the Skåne Police, now tells us about the 20 interviews she had with the girl.
– I had to build trust. It was very special, because she was in hospital and was so unwell. So it had to take the time it needed to get there. There were times I just sat and held her hand and was completely silent, she says.
But over time, the girl begins to open up about what she must have been exposed to. She tells, among other things, that she was burned and when asked who did it, she answered:
– Mother.
Was surprised by the girl’s story
During the trial, extensive and long-term suffering was described for the girl, for which the parents are, according to the indictment, to blame. A long list of injuries was documented, from head to toe. Among other things, the girl seems to have been tied in a car seat under the sink locked in a laundry room.
– I remember that there were times we said afterwards that it couldn’t get any worse, but it did. We didn’t know what it was when we started, after as she told us, we thought that this is not how it can be, as it has been for her. We were probably not prepared for that.
How the girl ingested so much vinegar that she almost died is another question mark. Interrogation footage shows how a blind test is done with vinegar and other scents – to see if it is plausible that she could have chosen to drink voluntarily.
“Very thinking girl, very wise”
During the interrogation, a therapeutic process also takes place. After a few months, the girl herself formulates the idea of a life without her parents. She asked, among other things, if the real police had taken her parents and if they were still in custody.
– It was clear during the interrogation that she blossomed. She is a very thinking girl, she is very wise, says Petra Johansson.
In the video material from the interrogation, questions are also asked about the last time the mother hurt her.
– Never. It’s never the last time, says the girl in the video material.
The parents deny the crime – verdict in March
According to a forensic psychiatric examination was the mother either mentally ill at the time of the acts for which she was charged or when the examination was carried out. Nor is the father considered to suffer from a serious mental disorder.
Both parents deny wrongdoing and claim the daughter is lying. On March 7, the verdict will be handed down.
In the feature, the girl’s voice is created with the help of AI.
The girl and the interrogation
A unique insight into the interrogations of the police’s special child interrogation expert agreed with the so-called vinegar girl and the crimes she is suspected of having been subjected to.