A six-year-old girl was brought to Lund’s children’s emergency unit last Christmas with her stomach eaten away by vinegar. The girl was emaciated, dangerously hypothermic and had injuries all over her body. In the indictment against the parents, it appears that mistreatment and abuse occurred over a long period of time.
On Monday morning, the interrogation with the girl will be played in the Lund district court. The six-year-old describes her last Christmas Eve, when she was locked alone in a washroom, strapped into a car seat:
– I had no blanket or pillow. I slept without clothes too and I froze. None of them, not even dad, brought me clothes. I had to freeze.
The girl says that she “never wanted to come out”.
– I liked being alone.
Girl: I drank the vinegar
The room was dark, except for a light on the dryer. There was also a “small glass”, half full of vinegar, she says.
– I was thirsty.
The investigator: How did it feel?
– I got a stomach ache. Dad came. He heard me when I was sad, says the girl.
When the girl appeared at the hospital, she had a body temperature of 33.9 degrees and weighed only 16.2 kilograms.
Prosecutor’s theory: Slang
In the interrogation, the picture emerges of a tough situation for the six-year-old. At one point, she tells about how her parents poked and hit her. She also says she doesn’t want to live with them.
According to the defense, the vinegar was on the family’s dryer to get rid of bad smells. That the daughter ingested the liquid was an accident, according to defense lawyer Ebba Gerleman. The parents completely deny having exposed the girl to crime.
Prosecutor Ingegerd Jigin is open that police and prosecutors do not know exactly how the girl ingested the vinegar. Last week she presented a hypothesis:
– She may have had some object stuffed down her throat, for example a hose, to get vinegar down.
According to the prosecutor, the hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the medical staff also found abrasions on the throat, which were not caused by medical instruments.
Facts: The prosecution against the parents
(TT)
The parents of a now seven-year-old girl have been charged on seven counts.
Extremely severe abuse: The parents are held responsible because the girl has ingested such a quantity of vinegar that she has suffered caustic damage to her esophagus and stomach and thus put her life in danger. They also allegedly exposed her to prolonged and severe cooling and thus put her in a life-threatening condition. When she entered the hospital in Lund on the night of Christmas Eve 2022, her body temperature was 33.9 degrees.
As they are custodians, the parents have guarantor responsibility for the girl and have therefore at least known that the girl was exposed to this, but failed to intervene.
Two counts of wrongful deprivation of liberty: The girl was allegedly kept strapped into a car seat, locked in a laundry room where the handle on the inside was removed, for several weeks in December 2022. The girl was also allegedly kept locked in much earlier. It must have happened periodically, between April 2020 and June 2022, in a room with pre-nailed windows and a gate for the door.
The parents are also charged with three different crimes of gross abuse against the girl, which include that she was subjected to starvation or at least severe malnutrition. The parents are also charged with gross breach of the peace.
The trial in Lund District Court continues until January 23.
Source: Prosecutor’s subpoena