Attorney Rebecca Lagh, specializing in children’s law, has never been involved in a similar case. She is upset by the Court of Appeal’s assessment.
– The children’s perspective is completely gone. The girl has been brave and told. She has told me that she has had a finger inside her, how can it not be rape? This is about how she names her sex, if she had said vagina there would have been no question, but no child uses that word.
Common word in other legal cases
SVT Nyheter has taken part in a number of recent district court and appeals court judgments in which the word snippa appears. In the current case, the Court of Appeal was unsure how the word should be interpreted – but the question of the meaning or meaning was not raised during the trial either, states prosecutor Eva-Lotta Swahn, prosecutor’s chamber in Halmstad.
She will discuss with the development center about an appeal. The decisive decision to appeal to the Supreme Court is taken by the Attorney General.
Several prominent lawyers, including former chief prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem, have already criticized the verdict and pointed to the need for a review in HD. Approximately 6,000 Court of Appeal judgments are appealed each year, and in approximately 100 cases leave to appeal is granted, reports The evening paper.
“He should have been convicted”
Ulrika Rogland, who is a lawyer with a focus on sexual crimes against children, says in a written comment that she hopes for an HD trial.
“If HD takes it up, the Court of Appeal’s judgment may change. I think it’s misjudged. The child has told of a sexual assault that involved penetration regardless of what she called her gender, so the man would have been convicted.”
“There can be too much focus on the choice of words”
Rebecca Lagh fears that the Court of Appeal verdict may lead to fewer children choosing to report sexual crimes, and fuel the fear of crime victims not to be trusted.
– If the verdict is upheld, it will be a setback for the crime victims. Many people generally find it difficult to use gendered words, and in interrogations there is a risk that there will be too much focus on word choice.