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The parents have been prosecuted on suspicion of torturing the girl with vinegar and cooling. Several times the social services were alerted that something was not right in the family – but nothing happened, reports HD and Sydsvenskan.
The newspaper’s review shows that several different community agencies and a private person on at least four occasions raised the alarm to the social services in the municipality of Skåne.
Healthcare staff felt “a concern for a lack of care” in September 2022, according to documents. Three months later, in December, it was Folktandvården’s turn to raise the alarm, as the girl had not been there since January 2019.
The girl’s preschool contacted social services already in 2018, without any concern being reported.
“It was a feeling”
When the girl only showed up four times to her preschool class in the fall of 2022, no report was made, even though several members of the staff wanted it.
“They had nothing to go on, but it was a feeling, they wanted to make a report of concern,” says a teacher in police interrogation, according to HD and Sydsvenskan.
A report of concern has also been made by a former colleague of the father, in January 2023.
They do not want to answer how the municipality followed up the series of reports of concern. The municipality’s director of children and education refers to confidentiality and writes in an email to HD and Sydsvenskan that they have done what is expected “according to laws and regulations”.
Trial on Monday
According to the indictment, the suffering the girl was subjected to includes, among other things, that she was allegedly forced to drink large amounts of vinegar, was kept tied up in a laundry room for several weeks and subjected to starvation.
When she, then six years old, came into the emergency room in Lund on the night of Christmas Eve 2022, she was in a life-threatening condition. The body temperature was 34 degrees and the stomach was so corroded by vinegar that it had to be surgically removed.
The parents, aged 42 and 34, deny all counts. The trial begins on Monday.
The FACTS in brief
The parents of a now seven-year-old girl are charged with 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. As they are guardians, they 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 deprivation of liberty: The girl was allegedly kept strapped into a car seat, confined in a laundry room with the inside handle removed, for several weeks in December 2022. For a longer period in 2020, the girl was allegedly kept confined in a room with nailed-down windows and a gate for the door.
The parents are also charged with three different serious assault crimes against the girl and one case of serious breach of peace.
Source: Prosecutor’s subpoena
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